


Megaman ZX Advent - The Novelization

by DarkGreiga



Series: Megaman ZX: Era of MegaMen [3]
Category: Rockman ZX | Mega Man ZX
Genre: FanFiction.Net, Novelization, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2019-05-09 08:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 37,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14712350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkGreiga/pseuds/DarkGreiga
Summary: Sequel to Megaman ZX - The Novelization, and also the novelization of the Advent game with both Grey and Ashe in the story!





	1. Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the sequel to the previous novelization and also the novelization of the second game! This story features Grey and Ashe along with the returning Vent and Aile.

Three years had passed since the defeat of Serpent, but his defeat and the destruction of his company, the Slither Inc., didn’t put an end to the Maverick outbreaks. To take care of the attacking Mavericks, one of the Guardians was assigned to lead the ground troop, and another one was in charge of helping to protect the base.

Three years had passed since the two Guardians started their missions, and the Guardian in charge of protecting the base was lying on the bed, and occasionally let out desperate sighs, before getting up and out of the room. The Guardian’s ponytailed long brown hair swung back and forth as the Guardian headed towards the Guardian Base’s command center.

“Ah, Aile! You’re finally here!” The Guardian commander turned her chair around, and noticed the sad look on the Guardian’s face, “Aile, please stop thinking about what happened last week. It wasn’t your fault that we couldn’t detect the enemies in the radar.”

“But…” The Guardian, Aile, spoke up before letting out a sigh and lowered her head, “If I had been more focused, maybe we could have driven away the enemies before they could steal the Biometals…”

“Don’t worry about it, Aile,” Prairie said with a smile, making Aile look up to her, “We will get them back, and you’re not going to the battlefield on your own this time.”

“Huh? S-So you mean…” Aile’s face lightened up a bit as the Guardian commander nodded her head before turning away from her.

In the highway area on the ground, another Guardian who was in charge of leading the other Guardians on the ground was standing while having a hand on the communicator on his ear, looking ahead towards the entrance of the destroyed Slither Inc. head office building.

“Alright, Prairie. Tell me the details later after I’m back to the base,” The Guardian ended the communication before looking up at the broken building with his long brown hair being blown back and forth by the wind, _‘Are you still watching over us, Boss? Wish us luck with our next mission…’_

The Guardian disappeared in white light, reappearing in the Guardian Base’s transerver room. The Guardian went out of the room before heading towards the command center, ignoring the surprised stares from the other Guardians he came across. The door leading to the command center slid open, and the Guardian entered the room.

When he entered the command center, he could barely recognize the figure that was standing there. Aile, who was standing behind Prairie’s chair, turned to the opening door as the Guardian entered. The two started at each other for a while with surprised looks on their faces before Aile spoke up and broke the silence between them.

“Vent? Is that you?” Aile asked with a surprised look.

“A-Aile? You look… different…” Vent commented as he turned away to hide his blush.

“I’m sorry, but I have to cut the reunion,” Prairie turned to the two Guardians with a serious look on her face, “We have located some Model Ws that were separated years ago. It seems like they also have caused some abnormalities in a few places. I want you two to destroy those Model Ws before they caused any more trouble.”

“Okay, roger that!” Vent saluted before he left along with Aile.

Vent and Aile went out of the command center in silence and stopped in the transerver room, not knowing what they should talk about after not seeing each other for three years. They silently teleported themselves to the city area, which was as peaceful as always, to take a walk together after they hadn’t seen each other for quite a long time.

Vent’s stomach suddenly growled, making Aile laugh, “Have you eaten anything yet?”

Vent blushed in embarrassment before replied, “W-Well, no… Want to get something to eat before we go investigate and destroy those Model Ws?”

Aile nodded and smiled, “Sure, that’ll be great! It’s been a while since we hang out with each other like this…”

“Yeah…” Vent looked down at Aile, who was a little shorter than he was, and blushed before looking away.

“Anyway, I’ve noticed something different about you,” Aile suddenly stepped in front of Vent, who quickly stopped walking before he could crash into her, “You’re taller than me!” Aile walked around him and stopped behind him, “And your hair is longer now!”

“Well, I keep on growing in those three years and about the hair…” Vent turned around to Aile and let out a sad smile, “I just want to keep reminding myself about Boss and how he gave his life to protect ours…”

“I see…” Aile lowered her head sadly.

“What about yours? I thought that you said that you wanted to keep your hair short,” Vent asked, making Aile blush and turned away nervously.

“W-Well, that’s because… um…” Aile kept looking away, hoping that Vent didn’t see her blushing face.

**_-Flashback-_ **

_A week had passed since Vent left for the mission on the ground while Aile stayed to protect the base. Aile slowly entered the command center and stopped in front of Prairie’s chair before letting out a loud sigh. The Guardian commander heard the loud sigh and turned to the brown-haired Guardian, who was looking at the ground sadly._

_“Prairie, I can’t stop thinking about Vent ever since he left last week…” Aile told Prairie sadly, before letting out another sigh, “I don’t know why I feel this way… I might have some feelings for him, but I don't think he ever notice me that way…”_

_“Aile, I think I might have an advice for you if you want his attention,” Prairie rose from her seat and smiled at the Guardian._

_“You do!?” Aile’s face brightened and looked up at the Guardian commander in anticipation, “Please tell me!”_

_Prairie giggled at Aile’s anticipation, “Alright, I’ll tell you,” Prairie looked up at Aile’s hair, “Why don’t you try letting your hair longer? I think that’ll make you look more like a girl so that Vent will start looking at you as a girl, not a tomboy anymore.”_

_“My… hair…?” Aile reached for her short brown hair, “A-Are you sure it’ll work?” Prairie nodded at her with a smile, and Aile smiled in return, “I-I’ll give it a try then…”_

**_-End of Flashback-_ **

Pushing the memory aside, Aile looked back at Vent nervously, “I-It’s a change of taste…” Aile nodded nervously, “Y-Yeah, a change of taste!”

“A change of taste, huh?” Vent turned away with a smile, “That’s a good change then. You look more beautiful with your hair longer,” Vent turned back to Aile, still smiling, “Come on, let’s get something to eat! I’ll treat you!”

“Y-Yes!” Aile followed closely behind Vent, blushing furiously, _‘He called me beautiful!’_

On the sky far above them, a silver-haired girl had just come out of her airship and leaned on the railing of her airship, enjoying the wind as it blew on her face and her ponytailed long silver hair. She looked up, smiling as she enjoyed the calm wind blowing around her.

“What a refreshing wind!”


	2. Through the Lighting

A silver-haired girl was enjoying the blowing wind on her face before she decided to turn on the communicator on her ear. The voices of three males were heard through the communicator, soon followed by laughter from one of them. The girl looked ahead of her, seeing a fleet of airships in front of the airship she was on.

“Ahem!” The girl coughed, smiling as she looked at the fleet in front of them, “Nicol, Lazarus, Red, calm down!”

 _“That voice… Ashe, is that you?”_ One of the voices, Nicol, asked, _“Where are you?”_

The girl, Ashe, laughed, “Since it was getting kinda hot in there, I decided to go out and cool off,” Ashe looked at the fleet in front of her, “We’ve almost caught up to the Raider airship with the booty on it, so I guess I’m going on ahead!”

 _“Hey, Ashe! That’s not fair!”_ Another one of the voices, Lazarus, was heard, but Ashe kept the communicator on while ignoring Lazarus’ complaints as she was looking down at the airships right below hers, _“Hey, are you listening!?”_

“Bingo!” Ashe checked her gun in her gun holder before running towards the edge of the airship, “Let’s put everything we’ve got into it!” Ashe jumped from the airship and spread out her arms before landing on the airship right below hers and smiled as she reached for her communicator, “Alright, I’ve successfully docked with the airship! Now I’ll find where that booty is!”

A sigh was heard from Nicol through Ashe’s communicator, _“Shouldn’t you already know that the booty is always in the lead airship? We always go in from the back and ended messing everything up!”_

“Alright, I’m going then!” Ashe replied cheerfully, “You guys better be careful, okay?” Ashe ended the connection before running on top of the airship.

Ashe ran towards the edge of the airship she was on with the wind blowing around her before she jumped to another airship in front of it. She stopped to look ahead of her, noticing that the airships hadn’t noticed her presence yet and continued ahead to jump across to another airship. A metal soldier suddenly came out from the airship, making Ashe run behind a nearby metal box to hide.

“This is Ashe,” Ashe reached for her communicator, “Are there any Mavericks on the radar?”

There was a short pause before Lazarus replied, _“There’s a Mechaniloid ship among them! They must be after the Biometal!”_

“Yeah, could be,” Ashe peeked from behind the metal box to see the Mechaniloid looking around and hid back behind the box, “The competition is high this time. You guys be careful!” Ashe ended the connection before pulling out her gun.

Ashe took another peek at the Mechaniloid, which had its back turned to her. Ashe took the chance to shoot it, destroying the Mechaniloid before she came out of hiding. She climbed to the top of the airship using smaller metal boxes and looked ahead to the front, where the final airship was and headed towards the edge of the airship to jump across.

Just as Ashe was about to jump, the lead airship suddenly sped away from the airship she was standing on. A small flying purple platform suddenly flew down and stopped in front of her. Ashe jumped on to the platform before it flew to catch up to the airship, only to crash into a round platform which had suddenly flown down in front of her. Ashe quickly jumped to the round platform, before a golem-like Mechaniloid flew down on her left.

“Another Mechaniloid…” Ashe reached for her gun as she looked up at the Mechaniloid’s face and smiled, “No matter how many you are and how big you are, I’m not going to let you get between me and my booty!”

One of the golem Mechaniloid’s hands moved down to Ashe’s level, letting her to jump on to it. As the hand moved back up and Ashe pulled her gun before aiming to shoot at the Mechaniloid’s eyes. One of its eyes was destroyed and the hand moved down to the round platform’s level, before the platform released flamethrowers around it. Ashe jumped back to the round platform while avoiding the fire.

The platform stopped releasing the flamethrowers soon after, and Ashe jumped on to the other golem Mechaniloid’s hand. Ashe aimed her gun at the other eye, before letting some shots to destroy the other eye of the Mechaniloid. With both of its eyes destroyed, the Mechaniloid stopped moving before its whole body glowed and exploded. The explosion sent Ashe to fall on the back of the leading airship, facing a door in front of her.

“Alright, safe landing!” Ashe put her gun back before raising her arms in excitement, “Here I come, booty!”

Ashe excitedly ran towards the door, only to be stopped by a male Reploid who had just teleported right in front of the door. The Reploid, who had purple armor and was wielding a scythe, looked at her with a disgusted look on his face, “It seems like the Biometal had attracted a bug…” The Reploid motioned his hand as he shooed her away, “Shoo, pest!”

“Hey, what did you just call me!?” Ashe reached for her gun angrily, “Some nerve you’ve got there to talk to me like that,” Ashe looked at the Reploid closely before releasing her grip from her gun, “Wait, you don’t look like you’re a Hunter…”

The Reploid looked away angrily, feeling disgusted, “Don’t you even think about putting me on the same level as those money-hungry Hunters!” The Reploid slammed his scythe to the ground, “You’re not worthy of this Biometal! Go away!”

“Sorry, but we can’t do that!” Nicol’s voice came from behind Ashe as he had landed on the airship along with Red and Lazarus.

“We finally made it!” Lazarus pulled out his gun and pointed it at the Reploid, “Don’t start the party without us!”

As Nicol and Lazarus pulled out their guns, Red was behind them, looking at the Reploid in confusion, “Is this guy a Hunter, or a Maverick?”

Ashe turned her head a little to the three behind her, “I don’t think he’s just anybody…”

The Reploid let out a sigh, which got Ashe’s and the others’ attention, “This is irritating…” The Reploid got his scythe ready as he walked a few steps closer to them, “You’ll remember the name of the one who took your last breaths away: I am Prometheus, and I control the power of this Biometal… The power of Mega Man!”

Ashe braced herself as the Reploid charged in at her with his scythe, before she blacked out.


	3. Destiny

It was a silent evening inside a laboratory. A boy Reploid with short silver hair, a red triangle on his forehead, and a small scar on his lower left cheek had his eyes shut as he was inside a capsule in the lab’s room. The capsule was filled with transparent liquid, and the red cables on the Reploid’s back were plugged into the two plugs on the ceiling of the capsule.

The door into the room where the Reploid was slid open and two men in yellow armor with a gun each came into the room. The two men looked around the room, before one of them let out a disappointed sigh, “Man, this isn’t it either! I was hoping that we’d find it right away and show it off to the others back at Hunter’s Camp…”

“Come on, let’s just see if we can anything else interesting here…” The other one walked passed his partner and noticed some dim light on the floor. He looked to the side and saw a capsule as the light source, “Hey, there’s something there!” The other man approached him as he pointed at the Reploid in the capsule, “It looks like…”

“Wait, a Reploid kid?” The two men looked at each other in disbelief before turning back to the capsule, “No way! What’s it doing here?” The man saw as his partner was about to touch the capsule and pulled him back, “Don’t touch it! If you trip the security, we’ll have Mechaniloids crawling all over us!” The man let out a sigh before unconsciously putting his hand on the capsule as he leaned on it, making the alarm ring.

The other man turned to his partner, “And that, is not my fault,” Mechanical footsteps came closer to them before the door on the opposite side of the room opened to reveal some Mechaniloids coming in, “Great. More Mechaniloids.”

The two men pulled out their guns, and began shooting at the Mechaniloids, which were also countering with their arm buster guns. One of the buster shots hit the man standing the closest to the capsule, knocking him against the capsule and broke the glass a bit. As the man was down, warning signs popped out on the capsule’s glass before the liquid in the capsule was drained away and left the Reploid hanging with the cables on his back.

The Mechaniloids and the other man went down soon after, leaving the room in the lab to be silent once more. The capsule opened up as the glass was lowered down, before the cables on the Reploid’s back unplugged themselves from the capsule’s plugs and the Reploid fell on the ground in front of him.

The Reploid got up and was panting before he opened his red eyes, but their colors slowly turned into green. The Reploid looked around the room, which had the bodies of the two men along with the remains of Mechaniloids lying on the ground. The Reploid looked at his hands in confusion, having no idea what happened.

The Reploid moved his feet, and was shocked to see a man in yellow armor lying next to him, “W-What the!? What’s going on here? Where am I? Who am I?” The Reploid clutched his head in pain, “Ugh… I can’t remember anything… My head hurts for trying to remember…” A female Reploid suddenly teleported in front of Grey, surprising him, “W-Who are you!?”

The female Reploid, who had white and light blue armor and a staff with a yellow end, looked down at him as she hovered a little above the ground, “I… am Pandora…” The Reploid, Pandora, replied, “Grey… I’m here to dispose of you…”

“Grey? Is that my name?” The male Reploid, Grey, asked in confusion before he backed away from Pandora, “W-What do you mean dispose of me!?”

“You… are a Mega Man… like me…” Pandora looked down at Grey with her red eyes, “But you were awakened… before the mind control sequence was completed…”

“Mega Man? Mind control!?” Grey backed away more, feeling more and more confused, “What have you done to me!?” Pandora ignored Grey’s questions as she raised her staff and sent a line of thunder balls at Grey, knocking him down near one of the man lying on the ground.

“Defectives must be disposed of…” Pandora raised her staff once more.

Grey got to his knees and noticed the gun lying next to the man’s hands and took it, _‘I guess this guy won’t be needing his gun anymore…’_ Grey aimed the gun at Pandora before letting out a few shots at Pandora who was surprised but managed to put up a barrier to shield herself. Grey ran away through the door behind him while Pandora wasn’t watching him. Grey stopped a few steps after going through the door and looked back at the door while panting, “Why did she call me a defective?” Grey turned around from the door, “I have to get out of here before they kill me!”

Grey made a mad dash through the lab, which was crawling with Mechaniloids all over the place. Grey shot the Mechaniloids out of his way as he ran straight ahead, hoping to find and exit somewhere. Grey got through another door, which led him to a waterfall outside the lab, and continued running towards the red bridge made of metal.

A golem-like Mechaniloid came crashing down on the bridge, blocking Grey’s way across. The Mechaniloid’s hands dropped down, but Grey had run out of the way and jumped on it. The hand moved up, and Grey pulled out his gun before aiming it at his head and let out a few shots at it. The shots destroyed one of the eyes before the hand moved down a little bit as the other hand dropped down on it, but Grey had jumped back to the bridge before he could be squashed flat.

Grey waited for the other hand to move back into its place and moved down before he jumped on it. Grey aimed and shot the Mechaniloid’s other eye, destroying it completely. Grey jumped down as the Mechaniloid’s body started glowing before it exploded, breaking the bridge Grey was standing on before the remains along with Grey fell into the water under the broken bridge.

Grey’s body hit the cold water, and that was the only thing he remembered before blacking out completely.


	4. Rock ON! Model A!

“AAAHHH!!!” The silver-haired Reploid let out a yell as he jerked up from the bed suddenly, surprising the silver-haired girl who was sitting up on her bed.

“Do you really have to yell so loudly before waking up!?” The silver-haired girl, Ashe, turned to Grey angrily.

“Sorry…” Grey turned away from Ashe to look around the room they were in, “What is this place?”

“Honestly, I don’t know…” Ashe got off from her bed and offered her hand to Grey, “My name’s Ashe. What’s yours?”

“I’m… Grey… I think that’s what she called me…” Grey got off from his bed and shook Ashe’s offered hand. The door slid open suddenly and two men came in, making Grey let go of Ashe’s hand and take out his gun, “Who’s there!?”

“W-Wait! Don’t shoot! I’m Nicol and this is Billy!” Nicol said in panic after seeing the gun pointed at him and relaxed once Grey lowered his gun, “I see that you two are awake now,” Nicol pointed at Billy, “This guy and his Hunter friends found us three outside the Hunter Camp.”

“Ah, I see… I’m Ashe and this little guy is Grey,” Ashe introduced herself and Grey.

“Hey, I’m not little! I’m just…” Grey looked at Ashe, who was standing next to her and saw that his eyes were at Ashe’s shoulder level, “… shorter than her…”

“Wait!” Ashe suddenly remembered, “Nicol, what happened to our booty?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve recovered the whole container and we’re going to send it to the Legion HQ by train right away,” Billy replied, before noticing the flames in Ashe’s eyes, “Something wrong?”

“I’m not going to let you take credit for our booty!” Ashe said angrily, “Where’s the train station!? Grey and I will come along with you guys!”

“What!?” Grey turned to Ashe angrily, “Hey, who said that I’m going with you!?”

Nicol let out a sigh as he and Billy watched the bickering duo, “Guys, the train station is to the left once you exit this building,” Nicol pulled out a card  from his pocket and handed it to Grey, “Grey, you’ll need this to get in and out of the camp.”

“Huh?” Grey took the card and took a closer look at it, “Wait, I didn’t ask to be a Hunter! Why did you give me this license-”

“Let’s go already!” Ashe impatiently dragged Grey out of the room before he could finish.

Nicol let out another sigh before shaking his head, “That’s just Ashe for you, I guess…” Nicol turned to Billy, “I’m going to rest in the camp. Can you come with them to make sure Ashe doesn’t cause any trouble for the other Hunters?”

Billy laughed before nodding, “Alright, you just enjoy yourself here, okay?”

Billy and Nicol went out of the room before they went separate ways. Billy headed towards the train station, seeing that Ashe and Grey had boarded the train along with the container. Billy hopped on to the last car, where the two and the container were and the train slowly moved away from the station.

Billy turned to Ashe, “So Ashe, I’ve heard from Nicol that you’re a Hunter too, right?" Ashe nodded in reply, “So what makes you want to be a Hunter anyway?”

“Well, I was actually found by the Hunters as a little girl and they raised me. They said that my town was attacked by Mavericks and I was the only survivor,” Ashe let out a sad sigh, “They don’t know who I really am. Not even I know…”

“Oh, sorry I asked that…” Billy lowered his head.

“It’s okay. That’s the reason why I wanted to become the best Hunter in the world! I want people to remember me and have my name in history books,” Ashe replied before turning to Grey, “So, how about your story?”

“Me?” Grey turned to Ashe, then to Billy, before lowering his head, “I… I don’t know… I can’t remember anything. I can’t remember why I was created…”

_“So they don’t know about themselves, just like me…”_

“Huh?” Ashe and Grey said in unison before they looked around.

“Ashe, are you hearing what I’m hearing?” Grey turned to Ashe and asked.

“If you mean a strange voice, then I guess I did…” Ashe replied, ignoring the fact that Billy was looking at them in confusion.

_“Hm? You can hear me?”_

“There’s that voice again!” Ashe looked to the sides of the car, but nothing other than the rail and rocks were around them.

“What the!?” Billy’s surprised voice gained the attention of Ashe and Grey. Billy pulled out his gun as flying Mechaniloids were coming towards them, “Dang! Mavericks!” Billy managed to shoot down one of the flying Mechaniloids before turning to the two, “They must be going for the engine! You two stay here with the Biometal!”

As Billy left for the next car, two Reploids teleported in. One was a male with purple armor and a scythe while the other one was a female with white and blue armor and a staff with a bigger yellow end. Ashe’s and Grey’s eyes grew wide as they recognized the Reploids in front of them. Ashe stepped forward and blocked them away from the container.

“Prometheus!” Ashe recognized the purple Reploid.

“Pandora!” Grey recognized the white and blue Reploid.

“This is it…” The female Reploid, Pandora, spoke up, “The container of Biometal Model A…”

“We have no use for the two of you,” The male Reploid, Prometheus, spoke up before he got his scythe ready, “The bug and the defective… this is your end!” Prometheus swung his scythe, cutting through a bit of Ashe shoulder, and through a bit of Grey’s arm before destroying a small part of the container.

“Not… yet…” Ashe said weakly as she clutched her bleeding shoulder.

“We… won’t let you…” Grey fell to one knee.

_“Hey, you two! If you don’t want to die, then do exactly what I tell you! Since you two can hear me, we can Rock On!”_

“W-Who are you?” Grey asked, slightly turning his head to the broken container.

_“I’m Biometal Model A! Now I want you to focus and yell ‘ROCK ON!’ as loud as you can!”_

The two nodded before getting up to their feet, “ROCK ON!!!”

 _“Biolink Established! M._ _E._ _G._ _A. System Online!_ _”_ A white and purple metal came out of the container in a pillar of light, before the light engulfed the two.

As the light engulfed the two, Prometheus glared at them as he watched them transform. Red and purple armor covered their bodies, followed by a red, purple, and yellow helmet on their heads. A pair of gray buster guns appeared in their hands, and the light died down to reveal Ashe and Grey already fused with the Biometal.

“This power within me…” Ashe looked down at her hands, which were holding the guns, “The Biometal makes me feel stronger! This is Mega Man power!”

“This power…” Grey closed his eyes, “I feel like I know this power…”

“Mega Man… Model A!” Pandora spoke up in surprise.

Prometheus put away his scythe, “Hmph, looks like I’ve got to hand the Biometal to you,” Prometheus looked at Ashe and Grey with an evil smile, “Seems like you’ve got what it takes to participate in this little game…”

“Game? What do you mean?” Grey asked in confusion, but Prometheus ignored his question.

“Just keep that Model A, for now. You’ve got a few more encounters with the other Mega Men ahead of you, and you only need to survive the battle until the end. Let’s get this game begin! _His_ Game of Destiny!” Prometheus and Pandora teleported away, leaving the confused Ashe and Grey.

“The Game of Destiny… what was that all about?” Ashe asked herself before the train suddenly shook.

“Ashe! We’ve got to go and help the others!” Grey said as he turned to Ashe.

 _“W-Wait! Shouldn’t we get out of here?”_ Model A asked, his voice echoing in their heads.

“Oh, you don’t want to come?” Ashe asked in irritation, “Fine! Just transform us back and we’ll be on our own!”

 _“Alright, alright! I’ll go! It’s better than what those two might do to me…”_ Model A gave in before Ashe and Grey nodded to each other and headed towards the front most car.

Ashe and Grey used their guns as they came across the boarding Mechaniloids, destroying them. With the Mechaniloids out of the way, Ashe and Grey continued ahead to the next cars leading towards the front one, which was the car where the engine was. Climbing up the front most car, Ashe and Grey looked around to see that no one was there. As they were going to take a step closer, a howl-like sound was heard and a figure suddenly came up to them by breaking the roof of the car.

A deer-like Pseudoroid landed in front of them, standing taller than the two, “Model A! You broke rule! You make big mistake. The ones you choose, no good! Mega Man Chosen Ones, children!? No good you lend power!”

 _“What are you yapping about?”_ Model A’s voice was heard, _“You don’t even know me!”_

“Is this guy a Maverick?” Grey asked Ashe, who just shrugged in reply.

“Me not Maverick! Me Pseudoroid, Buckfire! You get away from Prometheus and Pandora, but not from I!” Buckfire’s horns started glowing in red color, “Buckfire will pummel you into the ground!”

Ashe looked up as Buckfire jumped, “This guy is serious business!”

Ashe and Grey quickly moved out of the way as Buckfire kicked down at them, destroying more parts of the car’s roof. Grey got behind Buckfire, who didn’t notice the male Reploid and looked ahead at Ashe, who was charging her gun for a reflect laser. Buckfire released three burning arrows from his hand at Ashe, who moved away before landing her reflect laser at Buckfire’s chest.

As Buckfire charged in at her, Grey released a charged shot and hit Buckfire’s back, turning his attention away from Ashe. With Buckfire’s back turned to her, Ashe aimed for a Homing Shot and landed a shot on Buckfire’s horn. With Buckfire standing between Ashe and Grey, he released a pair of spinning tomahawks which hit both of them.

Buckfire jumped up once more and destroyed the rest of the car’s roof with his jumping kick. Ashe and Grey fell into the car, followed by the destroyed remains of the roof. Grey quickly let out some rapid shots from his gun as Buckfire came closer to him, but the shots barely did any damage to him. Grey aimed for a Homing Shot at a close range and pushed him back.

As Buckfire was pushed back by Grey’s Homing Shot, Ashe followed up with her laser shots before charging her gun. Buckfire released his tomahawks at them once more, but Ashe and Grey managed to move away before they could hit them. Ashe let out her reflect laser and shot Buckfire’s shoulder, destroying it. Grey followed with a charged shot through the Pseudoroid’s body and finished him off.

“You! Traitor… Our future… Our world…! Yeeeoooow!” Buckfire’s body glowed for a moment before exploding, leaving some data floating in his place before the data was absorbed by Ashe and Grey.

Model A’s laughing voice echoed in Ashe’s and Grey’s heads, _“Hey, we just copied that guy’s DNA data! With that, we can transform into Buckfire using my ability, the A-Trans! You only need to focus and choose who we want to transform into.”_

“Neat!” Ashe exclaimed before turning to Grey, “Now that we’re done here, should we continue on and get to Legion HQ already? Our reward must be waiting there!”

“Is that all you care about?” Grey asked before looking around at the broken car, “There’s no way this thing is going to take us to Legion HQ in this condition!”

“Then let’s try fixing it!” Ashe suggested, but only got a sigh from Grey, “What? There’s got to be something we can do to go to Legion now, right?”

“Not without transportation!” Grey replied, “Plus, I’m already tired! Not to mention that the other Hunters might need our help!”

“What a baby…” Ashe commented in annoyance, angering Grey as he had heard her.

 _“Guys, stop fighting already!”_ Model A said in their heads, but the two kept on fighting, _“Why did you two have to be the ones I can Rock ON with?”_


	5. First Official Mission

Ashe, Grey, along with the other Hunters came back safely to the Hunter Camp, bringing back Model A in Ashe’s and Grey’s possession along with the broken train. As the Hunters left to rest, Billy led Ashe and Grey to the 04 building in the camp to report the mission to Legion HQ through the transerver.

 _“So, you_ _’re the one who submitted the mission report? I_ _’m connecting your_ _transerver to Legion_ _’s via a secure channel_ _,”_ A voice was heard from the transerver before the big screen on their right lit up and showed the faces of three men.

 _“So, you’re the Biometal’s Chosen Ones… Mega Men…”_ The man with red hair in the middle of the three spoke up.

“Stop flooding us with questions already!” Ashe put her hands on her hips in annoyance, “Do people at Legion just do whatever they want?”

The man with yellow helmet on the right of the screen laughed, _“It seems like the rumors about you being feisty is true after all!”_

The man with light blue hair on the left of the screen let out a screen, _“That’s enough, Mikhail.”_

“Who are you?” Grey asked in confusion.

 _“We are Sage Trinity, the supreme authority of Legion,”_ The red-haired man replied, _“I’m Master Thomas.”_

 _“I’m Master Mikhail,”_ The man in yellow helmet introduced himself, _“Nice to meet you, Mega Men.”_

 _“And I’m Master Albert,”_ The blue-haired man smiled as he introduced himself, _“Nice to meet you, Grey, Ashe.”_

“Wait, how do you know my name!?” Grey asked in surprise, “Have we met before!?”

 _“Calm down,”_ Thomas spoke up before Grey calmed himself down, _“We know you from the Hunters’ report and we’re currently your files through the database now.”_

 _“For the time being, we have a mission for you two,”_ Mikhail spoke up, _“We need you to deliver the Biometal here, to Legion HQ, but it seems like the Mavericks are after the Biometal as well. Can we count on you two?”_

“For a big reward of Energy Crystals, that is!” Ashe spoke up bluntly as Grey face-palmed after hearing her.

Albert laughed before replying, _“But it looks like the train bound for Legion HQ is damaged. There’s a crashed Raider airship nearby, so if you head there you might get some parts to fix the train. Once we get our hands on the Biometal, we’re going to study it so its secrets will never be misused. Can we count on you two?”_

“We’ll do our best,” Grey said before the transmission ended and turned to Ashe and Billy, “Where’s the crashed airship anyway?”

“It’s in the Oil Field,” Billy started, “But since the airship crashed in that place, it triggered the security which blocked us off from the area. We can try disabling the security system after we’ve got some information on how to do it from the Tower of Verdure and Arctic Ice Floe, which are close to the camp.”

“Well, that settles it!” Ashe said in excitement, “We’re going to the tower first and that’s what we’re going to do now!”

“Now?” Grey asked before turning to Ashe, “Since when you’re the leader?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ashe grabbed Grey’s arm and dragged him to the door, “What matters now is that we’re going on with the mission now!”

“Fine…” Grey gave in and followed Ashe out of the camp, heading towards the nearby tower.

The front door slid open and the two entered, only to be greeted by the sound of the alarm, _“_ _ALERT! ALERT! SECURITY SYSTEM MALFUNCTION! ALERT CONDITION 3 IN_ _EFFECT! SEAL ALL EXITS!_ _”_

“All exits!?” Ashe asked herself in surprise before going back to the door where she came from and tried opening it, “No use!” Ashe turned to Grey, “We’re trapped in!”

 _“This is Albert!_ _”_ Albert’s voice was heard from Ashe’s and Grey’s communicators, _“_ _Are you alright!? That old tower was built to_ _surveil the surrounding area. The security has been fortified against Mavericks,_ _but there seems to be a malfunction. There should be a computer at the top that_ _controls the security system. You_ _two must get there and disarm the system._ _”_

“The top?” Grey looked up and noticed a door high up before pointing at it, “Is that it?”

“Worth checking out, I guess,” Ashe looked up at the door Grey was pointing at before turning to him, “Come on!”

Grey went on ahead as Ashe was behind him, having her gun ready for Homing Shots as Mavericks started gathering around them. Grey held one of his guns in one hand, and held on to the vines as he climbed up with the other. A worm-like Mechaniloid dropped down as soon as the two made it on to a platform, but Ashe’s Homing Shot destroyed it before it could crawl on to Grey.

“Thanks,” Grey said as he turned to Ashe, who smiled in return.

“Don’t mention it,” Ashe walked past Grey and led the way by climbing on to the next vines, “Come on, we’re almost at the top!”

“Right!” Grey nodded and climbed the vines, reaching up high to the top of the tower.

The door on the top floor slid open and the two Chosen Ones went into the room with some vines hanging on the ceiling. A bud-like Pseudoroid was on the other side of the room, facing a man and the door behind him. The man, who was wearing light brown clothes along with a light brown helmet and a face mask, pointed his gun shakily at the Pseudoroid.

“For a Raider to make it this far is quite something…” The Pseudoroid said before letting out an evil laugh, not noticing that Ashe and Grey were in the room, “I like you! Accept my thorny embrace and allow your soul to be scattered like petals on the breeze!”

The man yelled in fear as his entire body was shaking, “S-Stay away! S-Stay away from me!”

“Hey, stop it already!” Ashe stepped forward, “Leave the poor guy alone! We’re the ones you want!”

The Pseudoroid turned to Ashe and Grey in annoyance, “Look kids, I’m busy right now. Just wait there while I finish ripping this man’s soul out!” The man yelled in fear once more before he bolted out through the door behind him in panic. The Pseudoroid turned as the man left before turning back to Ashe and Grey angrily, “Look what you’ve made me do! You let my sacrifice get away!”

“We don’t care if that’s your sacrifice or anything!” Grey pointed buster gun at the Pseudoroid, “Restore the security system!”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” The Pseudoroid’s vine-like arms reached for the nearest vine before its body opened up like a blooming flower, “My name is Rospark. I sacrifice those unfortunate enough to wander into this tower! You too can become sacrifices… For the strength of the new king… Biometal Model W!” The Pseudoroid, Rospark, climbed higher and looked down at them, “For letting that one get away, I will make you two the replacements!”

“Sorry, but what I’ll become is a top Hunter, not some sacrifice!” Ashe pulled out both of her guns.

Rospark climbed up higher on the vine before throwing electrified thorns at Ashe. Ashe dodged the attack, but the thorns created an electric field around her. Rospark switched vines, heading towards Grey, and stopped on the vine right above him before sending out and electric beam straight in front of him as he slowly climbed down.

Grey dashed to the other side below Rospark and released a charged shot at him. Ashe dashed from behind Grey and followed up with a reflect laser, but missing him as Rospark had climbed higher and let the laser reflected on the wall behind him. The reflected laser hit the ceiling and reflected it back towards Rospark, who didn’t expect the reflected attack.

Rospark lost his grip and almost fell, but he quickly grabbed the vine in front of him before he could fall. Ashe quickly got behind Rospark and landed a Homing Shot on him, before Grey climbed on the wall and released another charged shot as he was sliding down the wall. Rospark sent out electrified thorns at Grey, who was hit by one of the thorns before he lost his grip on the wall.

Grey landed safely on the ground and quickly climbed the wall once more while charging his gun. Ashe had hit Rospark from behind with her reflect laser once more, making Rospark turn to her and rain her with many electrified thorns. Ashe climbed the wall as well while holding her gun for a Homing Shot, but waited for Grey to release his charged shot.

Grey released his charged shot at Rospark, hitting him hard enough to make him lose his grip again before letting go of his grip on the wall. Ashe jumped down from the wall and landed a Homing Shot at Rospark, who was in bud form, knocking him towards Grey. Grey landed another Homing Shot at Rospark, finishing him off before he could grab another vine.

“The nerve! That strength… How!? I’m wilting… wilting! Yeeeargh!” Rospark let out a pained yell before his body glowed and exploded, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy.

“Let’s go! That Raider guy must be in the next room,” Grey said, getting a nod from Ashe before they went to the next room to find the Raider, still shaking in fear, along with a strange machine unfamiliar to the two.

The Raider turned to the incoming guest, and backed away once he saw Ashe, “Y-You were one of the gang who attacked our airship, weren’t you?” The Raider took another step back while pointing his gun at Ashe, “S-Stay back!”

 _“I think he’s too panicked to even think straight…”_ Model A commented.

As Ashe and Grey took another step closer, the Raider fell on his bottom out of panic while holding on to his gun while shaking, “S-Stay away! I-I said stay away!” Purple orbs started coming out from his body and the Raider let out a pained yell before his voice slowly faded and he fell to the ground, completely motionless, as the machine absorbed the purple orbs and started humming.

“W-What was that!?” Grey looked back and forth between the machine and the Raider’s unconscious body.

Just as the two were going to approach the Raider, two people teleported in front of them. One was a light green-haired man in green clothes with some of his fringe covering his right eye. The other one was a man with dark purple hair, a red scarf covering his mouth and nose, and dark purple clothes. Their red eyes stared down at the two, who were completely clueless about what had happened.

“Total and utter defeat…” The man in green started, “That man, unable to endure the terror, fell victim to Model W.”

 _“Model W!?”_ Model A’s voice echoed, _“That huge thing is a Biometal!?”_

“BIOMETAL MODEL W… A BIOMETAL MADE FROM AN ANCIENT WEAPON,” The man in purple replied with a robotic voice.

“What the heck are you guys!?” Ashe asked before the two pulled out a Biometal each.

The man in green pulled out a green Biometal before his whole body was engulfed in blowing wind. The wind disappeared, revealing the man with green armor and two pink sabers. The man in purple pulled out a purple Biometal before his whole body was engulfed with dark shadow. The shadow soon disappeared and revealed the man to be in purple armor with torn red scarf.

“You, the Chosen One for Model A?” The man in green armor looked at the two in disgust, “What a disappointment! I am Aeolus, the Wind Mega Man, Model H.”

“CODEMAME: SIARNAQ. SHADOW MEGA MAN, MODEL P,” The man in purple armor introduced himself.

 _“Model H… Model P…”_ Model A paused for a moment before he noticed something, _“Wait, aren’t they the other Mega Men Prometheus was talking about!?”_

“OPERATIONAL TIME LIMIT EXCEEDED. RETRIEVE MODEL W,” Siarnaq spoke up in his robotic voice before he turned to the machine, which was Model W.

“Hey!” Ashe spoke up suddenly in annoyance, “Can’t you see that we’re right here? Now you’re just going to run away?”

“Us? Run away? Don’t be stupid!” Aeolus replied angrily, “We’re letting you live for now. Right now, our first priority is developing Model W. We can take care of you anytime.”

“OPERATIONAL TIME LIMIT EXCEEDED. REQUESTING YOU MOVE EXPEDITIOUSLY. MODEL W AWARENESS LEVEL 2. ESTIMATED TIME TILL MAVERICK GENERATION, 5717 SECONDS,” Siarnaq spoke up once more, turning to Aeolus.

“Wait, Maverick generation!?” Grey noticed Siarnaq’s saying, “So you mean those Mavericks are caused by this Model W?” Before Grey’s question could be answered, the two Mega Men had already teleported out along with the Model W, “Darn it! Just what the heck is going on!?”

“I don’t know,” Ashe turned to Grey, anxiety on her face, “Whatever it is, I doubt it’s a good thing for us.”

Grey nodded in agreement, “But I don’t think we should go after them now. We should go back to the camp and rest.”

“Alright, I guess…” Ashe put her hands behind her head casually as she and Grey headed out of the room until an idea suddenly struck her, “Hey, Grey!” Grey turned around to Ashe, “Have you tried playing cards? We Hunters usually play cards at night after we come back from exploring, so why don’t you come and try playing? I think the other Hunters wouldn’t mind if we place a bet or two in the game.”

Grey paused for a moment as he started thinking before nodding in reply, “Okay, I guess I’ll join in.”


	6. Icy Arctic

The next morning came, and Ashe was the first one to come out of the big and ancient bedroom she and Grey shared. Nicol was waiting while carrying two small bags with him outside the 00 building, where the silver-haired Hunters’ room was, and greeted the Hunter when he saw the silver-haired girl coming out of the building.

“Hey Ashe! Good morning!” Nicol greeted before noticing that she was on her own, “Where’s Grey?”

“Morning,” Ashe replied with a smile, “Grey said that he would be out in a bit,” The door behind Ashe opened up and Grey came out of the building with his arms hanging on his sides tiredly and a pair of dark bags under his green eyes.

“Whoa! Grey, what happened to you?” Nicol came over to the Reploid’s side as he let out a big yawn.

“First of all,” Grey drowsily turned to Ashe and pointed his finger at her, “Her non-stop talking kept me awake for at least five hours last night,” Grey turned away from Ashe and put his hands in his pockets, revealing them to be empty, “Thanks to those bets during that card game last night… I’m completely broke! Ashe completely cleaned my whole crystals from my pockets!”

Nicol laughed as he saw Grey’s empty, “Well, Ashe’s really good at placing bets, especially with beginners like you.”

Ashe pulled Grey into a headlock cheerfully, “But you know that you can learn a few things about betting from me, alright little brother?”

“Now what did you just call me!?” Grey broke free from Ashe’s headlock and turned to her with a glare, but Nicol pulled him back.

“Now, now… let’s stop this pointless argument, okay you two?” Grey settled down, and Nicol handed them two small bags, “Here, Billy told me that you two might need these underwater supplies for the next mission. He said that you’ll need to get to Arctic Ice Floe this time to reach the Oil Field.”

“Alright then, we’re all set to go!” Ashe said in excitement before pulling out Model A and turned to Grey, “Come on, let’s Rock On!”

“Rock ON! Model A!”

The two Hunters dashed away out of the camp, and headed towards the cold and icy part outside the Hunter Camp. They looked ahead of them and saw that the floor in front of them was made of ice. Ashe stepped on the ice and slipped to the other side before she fell on her face. Seeing Ashe’s falling, Grey couldn’t help but laugh and angered Ashe who aimed a charge laser at him.

Grey noticed the incoming attack and stopped laughing, quickly dodging the attack before he slipped on the ice and fell on his chest. Grey looked up at Ashe, who was now laughing at him, “Hey! It’s your fault in the first place for slipping! And what’s so funny about my falling anyway? It’s better that you fell on your face!”

“If you didn’t laugh at me then you didn’t have to fall at all!” Ashe talked back angrily as she tried getting up on the slippery ice.

“Well, if you didn’t shoot me then I wouldn’t fall!” Grey replied angrily before slowly trying to get up as well.

“Argh, forget it!” Ashe turned away from Grey angrily, “Come on, let’s just get moving already!” As Ashe took a step forward, the ice suddenly cracked, “What the!?” The crack got larger, creating a hole under her before she fell into it, “Aaahhh!!!”

“Ashe!” Grey skated on the ice towards the hole, only to make the cracks grow larger and make him fall as well. Grey fell through the hole and into cold water before he reached for the supplies bag, _‘Come on, there should be something in here… Huh?’_ Grey took out a small oxygen tank from the bag, _‘I think I can use this!’_

Grey used the oxygen tank before he landed on the ground under the water and saw that Ashe was already there, “Hey! Looks like us falling isn’t such a bad thing!” Ashe turned to Grey with a smile before looking at the underwater pathway in front of her, “Come on, I think it’s this way!”

Ashe dashed ahead, while Grey only followed her slowly while muttering to himself, “Yeah, not a bad thing until you almost shot me…”

Grey followed Ashe as they resurfaced once more, only to find Mechaniloids surrounding them. Ashe and Grey pulled out their guns, ready to clear their path from the Mechaniloids. Grey’s Homing Shot cleared some of the Mechaniloids and left some stronger ones standing to meet Ashe’s reflect lasers. As the number of Mechaniloids was slowly dropping, Grey charged his buster gun and released it, opening a way to get through.

“Come on, this way!” Grey said before he and Ashe went through the path created by Grey and stopped when they came across a big platform made of ice blocks, “Now what?”

Ashe looked ahead in front of them, which was blocked by a building, “If we can’t go straight…” Ashe looked down at the ice platform, “… I think we should go down…”

“Go down…” Grey looked down at the ice platform before turning to Ashe, “But how can we get down there?” As Grey had just finished with his question, two people teleported in front of them and stood on the ice platform.

One was a woman with short brown hair and orange-colored fringe, who was wearing orange clothes. The other one was a teenage boy with short blue hair and a red triangle on his forehead, who was wearing blue clothes. The woman’s red eyes glared at the two surprised silver-haired Hunters.

“Prometheus said he found some interesting people, and I came to see who they were. Thetis, they’re nothing more than kids, like you,” The woman spoke up, getting a frown from the boy standing next to her.

“You’re mean, Atlas!” The boy frowned and folded his arms in annoyance, “You’re not even that much older from me!”

“W-What is it with you people!?” Ashe asked.

The two pulled out a Biometal each in their hands. The woman punched the platform with her free hand and fire pillars came out surrounding her. The fire soon disappeared, revealing the woman in orange armor and white helmet with a pair of knuckle busters on her back. Ice covered the boy’s body, before it soon broke to reveal the boy in light blue armor.

“My name is Thetis, the Ice Mega Man,” The boy introduced himself, “Chosen One for Model L.”

“My name is Atlas, the Flame Mega Man, Chosen One for Model F,” The woman introduced herself before looking down at them uninterestedly, “How is it that unenlightened Hunters who have no ideals and don’t know about the Game of Destiny are Mega Men?”

“What’s with those weirdoes anyway?” Model A’s voice echoed in Ashe’s and Grey’s heads.

Grey let out a sigh, “Look, we don’t care about that. All we know is that if we beat them, we get to find out who we really are.”

The boy, Thetis, let out a yawn, “Sorry, I’m not in the mood to fight you right now. We’ve got other things to do, right Atlas?”

The woman, Atlas, nodded in agreement, “We’ve got no time for some kids who became Mega Men by accident,” Atlas took one of her knuckle busters from her back and held it in her left hand before looking at them with an evil smile, “You look like you could use a nice cold dip.”

Atlas slammed down her knuckle buster on the ice platform, breaking it before she and Thetis teleported away. Ashe and Grey fell into the water under the ice platform and landed on the sandy ground. A plate shape suddenly came out of the sand and charged towards them, only to stop in front of them and swam up to reveal himself as a Pseudoroid.

The Pseudoroid laughed as he looked down at the two silver-haired Hunters, “Welcome to my sub-zero world where even time freezes! You’ve got some nerve calling yourself Mega Men, Plebian and Defective! You’re nothing more than lowlife commoners! I, Chronoforce will take that Biometal off your hands!”

“Commoners!?” Ashe asked angrily, “I’ll make you eat your words, pal!”

Grey saw as Ashe charged in at the Pseudoroid, Chronoforce, and let out a sigh before pulling out his buster guns, “She’s not into people who called her by bad nicknames, huh?” Grey ran towards the area where Ashe and Chronoforce were fighting and saw that Ashe’s reflect lasers bounced from the Pseudoroid’s back, _‘If Ashe’s lasers bounced off his back just like that, then where’s the weak point?’_ Grey thought and saw that Ashe’s Homing Shot managed to damage him as he was about to send ice spears at her, _‘Its lower body! That’s it!’_

Grey morphed into Buckfire before closing in to Chronoforce and sent out fire arrows at his lower body before dashing under him, using his horns to cut through the lower body. Ashe watched as Grey battled him easily with Buckfire before she morphed into Buckfire and shot out more arrows at Chronoforce.

Chronoforce used his ice spear-like tail to propel himself away from them, before he swam behind them and released more ice spears at them from different directions. Grey took the hit from one of the spears, hitting him on the back, while Ashe got hit on the stomach. Chronoforce swam back to them and sent out an ice spear at them, only to be dodged easily.

Chronoforce swam in circles before a few ice spears appeared in front of him, shooting them out at the Hunters, who dodged the attack. Chronoforce swam away from them once more before burying himself under the sand and charged at them. Ashe and Grey, transformed into Buckfire, jumped and let Chronoforce pass under them.

Grey got his arm ready to shoot out more fire arrows as Chronoforce came closer to them, only to be beaten by Ashe as she had fired her own fire arrows and hit the Pseudoroid. With Chronoforce’s body filled with burn marks from the arrows and dents from Ashe’s reflect lasers, Ashe charged in for the last attack and got under Chronoforce, using the rocket jump to let the horns cut through the Pseudoroid and finished him off.

“… You are nothing more than a pawn in the palm… of _his_ hand,” Chronoforce spoke up weakly and looked down at the two silver-haired Hunters with an evil smile, “… All you can hope to do is just flail about in the little time you have left!” Chronoforce’s body glowed for a moment before exploding, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy.

Ashe and Grey transformed back to their Model A forms before Ashe folded her hands in irritation, “What with this ‘he’ person anyway!? We hear that ‘he’ person from almost everyone!” Ashe took a deep breath to calm herself down before turning to the surprised Grey, “Do you get the feeling that person is the one pulling the strings behind those Mega Men?”

Grey put his finger on his chin as he was thinking, “I guess that kinda makes sense…” Grey turned back to Ashe, “I think that’s the case…”

 _“Well, I’m getting tired of hearing that ‘he’ person!”_ Model A’s annoyed voice was heard in Ashe’s and Grey’s heads, _“Who do they think they are, taking advantage of our ignorance! Now I want to go all the way and win this stupid game!”_

“Well, I guess that’s the only thing to do for us to know more about ourselves too,” Ashe said with a shrug, “Model A, you want to know about yourself too, right?”

 _“Well, duh!”_ Model A replied shortly, _“There must be a good explanation why I can merge with you two.”_

“About that…” Grey spoke up, getting Ashe’s attention, “I don’t really know why, but I have the feeling that whatever it is that we want to find out, it’s not going to be something we like.”

Ashe stared at Grey for a moment before shrugging, “Oh well, let’s just move on and see what we’ll know!”


	7. Model F Mega Man! First Cipher!

Ashe and Grey left the Arctic Ice Floe through the door at the back of the area and used the transerver in the big room at the back of the area to send a mission report before they headed out to the Oil Field. Ashe and Grey disabled the security and headed out to the field in the outdoor, which was filled with pipes.

“So this is what an oil field looks like…” Grey commented as he looked around at the pipes in area, “Not to mention that it’s hot out here too…”

“Yeah, you’re right about that…” Ashe wiped the sweat dropping on her face and looked around, spotting a collapsed man in the middle of the field not too far from them, “Hey, there’s a person over there!”

Ashe and Grey ran over to the collapsed man and Grey helped the man sit up, “Hey, are you okay!?”

“Ugh… Help…” The man, wearing the Raider uniform, sat up weakly while leaning against Grey’s arm, “Our airship is under attack by something nasty… It intends to massacre us all!”

“What!? A massacre?” Ashe asked in disbelief, getting a weak nod from the Raider.

 _“Ashe! Grey! Can you hear me? This is Master Thomas,”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from Ashe’s and Grey’s communicators, _“It seems you’ve arrived at the crash site. That entire area is an underground resource mining facility. If that airship explodes, it will trigger the entire facility to detonate.”_

“Eh!?” Model A’s surprised voice was heard, _“T-Then… this place is going to explode! C’mon let’s get outta here!”_

“The airship’s that way, right?” Grey looked behind him, which was the field filled with pipes.

 _“Wait, Grey, you’re going to help him?”_ Grey nodded to Model A’s question, _“Ashe, what about you? These guys aren’t really on friendly terms with you and the other Hunters, right?”_

“It doesn’t matter who they are! I don’t need the reason to save lives! Come on, we’ve got to hurry!” Ashe turned to Grey, who nodded in agreement, before going deeper into the field.

As Mechaniloids came closer and surrounded them, Ashe and Grey pulled out both of their guns.  Ashe used her Homing Shot to destroy some of the Mechaniloids faster, only to have more coming at them. Grey released his charged shot at the Mechaniloids to clear away the path for them to go farther into the area, but more Mechaniloids came blocking their way.

“Man, this is endless!” Grey commented as he released another charged shot followed up by a Homing Shot, but more Mechaniloids came blocking their way.

“They must have some kind of problem with that crashed Raider airship,” Ashe said before she kept backing away, stopping as Grey was right behind her with his back turned to her as well, “And now they got us surrounded…”

 _“Ashe! Grey!”_ Model A’s voice was heard in the two Hunters’ heads, _“Giga Crush! Use the Giga Crush! Your guns’ rapid fire shots should clear away the path from these guys!”_

“Giga Crush…” Grey turned his head to Ashe, “I think it's worth the shot!” Ashe nodded in agreement before the two put their guns on their sides and started spinning them with rapid fire shots coming out of them.

“GIGA CRUSH!!!”

Rapid fire shots hit the Mechaniloids surrounding them and destroyed them fast before more of them came to the two Hunters. The number of Mechaniloids rapidly dropped before the area around them was filled with the remains of the broken Mechaniloids. Ashe and Grey were panting before they lowered their guns and looked around their surroundings, which was free of Mechaniloids.

“Now that’s… awesome!” Ashe raised her guns and looked at them with a smile, “You rock, Model A!”

Model A laughed in pride, _“That’s the other awesome ability I can give you, the sweeping Giga Crush!”_

“Alright, now let’s move before more Mechaniloids come running to us!” Grey suggested before he and Ashe headed farther in to the area until they came across some broken pipes along with a broken airship.

Ashe looked up at the airship and saw the logo of a man with an eye patch, “I think I’ve seen that logo somewhere… Wait! This is it! The crashed Raider airship! That’s the Raiders’ logo!”

“Alright, let’s go in!” Grey said before he and Ashe headed into the crashed airship and headed towards the control room, only to find an injured Raider leaning against the wall next to the door leading to the control room.

“Hey, are you alright?” Ashe said as she knelt down in front of the weakened Raider.

“I’m okay…” The Raider got up slowly while using the wall behind him as a support, “A-Are you here to help us?” Ashe and Grey replied with a nod and the Raider sighed in relief, “Thank goodness… but some of my friends didn’t make it out in time and got locked in behind the doors…”

“Alright, we’ll figure out a way to help,” Grey turned to Ashe, who rose to her feet, “Ashe, I’ll go and try if I can do something with the doors. You go and find some unlocked doors and free the trapped Raiders inside!”

“Yeah, so why are you the one doing the commanding?” Ashe asked jokingly before she walked past Grey, “Don’t worry, I’ll go with the plan.”

Grey let out a sigh as Ashe walked away to the broken elevator in the middle of the room, “Yeah, you better be…” Grey looked around and entered the room with a thunder symbol on the door and saw that there were a few machines in the room, with two of them inactive, “I guess I can turn those two inactive ones to open the doors…”

Grey morphed into Rospark and charged his vine-like arm and the seed inside his cone-like head. Grey slowly walked over to the first machine and swung his arm, electrifying the machine before it went on. Grey walked towards the second machine, which was sitting on the ceiling above him and released an electrified seed at the machine, turning it on before he transformed back into his Model A form.

“I guess that should do it,” Grey went out the room and saw that Ashe was standing by the door along with a few Raiders in front of her, “Whoa! That was fast!”

“Yeah, I kicked the doors open,” Ashe let out a smile as Grey face palmed. Ashe turned back to the Raiders and motioned them to leave before turning back to Grey, “Come on, that should be everyone here.”

Ashe and Grey entered the control room with Grey on the lead, but he suddenly stopped and blocked Ashe’s way when he heard the sound of something exploding, “Wait,” Grey went down and crawled quietly before hiding behind a higher platform, seeing the woman with brown hair and orange fringe jumping down to the lower floor, “That’s Atlas…”

“Atlas?” Ashe asked, getting Grey’s attention, “But what is she doing here?”

“Beats me,” Grey got back to his feet and turned to Ashe, “I’m guessing that she’s the one that Raider was talking about. Come on, she’s gone down to the lower floor.”

Ashe and Grey jumped down the hole where Atlas went and landed on a platform. Atlas was on the ground, standing in front of a door in the opposite side of the room, and hadn’t noticed the Hunters standing on the platform behind her before Ashe called her out, “Wait!”

Atlas turned away from the door and looked up at the Hunters, “So you managed to keep yourselves alive so far. You’re not going to help those weak Raiders, are you? They’re not even your allies!”

“They have nothing to do with this!” Grey yelled angrily, “There’s no way we can stay still while the likes of you hurt the innocents!”

“Hmph, you get some Mega Man power and all of a sudden you think you’re heroes,” Atlas replied before she reached for her pocket, “The history of the world, the history of the war… And now, the strongest of those who evolved as a product of war remain. A newly crowned king of Mega Men will soon spawn a new evolution. Mega Man’s power is the strength to fight. Those without strength don’t evolve. If you think I’m wrong, then try and beat me!” Atlas pulled out Model F from her pocket and transformed into her Model F form.

Grey dropped down from the platform to the ground while Ashe kept dashing on the platform before dropping down to the ground behind Atlas. Atlas took both of her orange-colored busters and held them in each of her hands before pointing them at the Hunters, who didn’t expect it. Atlas fired normal buster shots from her busters as soon as she pointed them at the Hunters, making the Hunters unable to dodge the shots.

Atlas ran over to Ashe and kicked her on the gut before bouncing off the wall and landed on the platform above them. Atlas’ left knuckle buster shot out a fireball at Grey, who dodged it and countered with a charged shot. Atlas was knocked back a little from the shot, but managed to stay on the platform before she jumped down to plant some small bombs on the Hunters’ feet.

Ashe and Grey quickly jumped to the opposite walls before the bombs exploded and jumped back to the ground with their Homing Shot guns ready. Ashe’s Homing Shot hut Atlas, but Grey missed his aim as Atlas had jumped on to the platform. Atlas soon jumped down to the ground while firing buster shots from both of her knuckle busters before sending out a ground wave of fire as she landed.

Ashe jumped to the side to dodge, but Grey wasn’t so lucky that the wave of fire hit him. Grey was knocked against the wall, but luckily he wasn’t knocked out and managed to get back to his feet. Atlas jumped on the platform, but the Hunters didn't react and charged their guns. Atlas let out a few buster shots in front of them, which bent down to head towards the two unexpecting Hunters.

The Hunters were thrown to different directions, but Ashe managed to land her reflect laser on Atlas. Atlas dropped down to the ground, only to fall victim to Grey’s charged shot followed by a few regular buster shots. Atlas was knocked back near the door behind her, not noticing that Ashe had climbed up to the platform with her reflect laser ready. Ashe jumped down from the platform and released her reflect laser, knocking Atlas against the door.

Atlas slowly rose to her feet and glared at the two Hunters, “Aren’t you going to finish me off?” The Hunters didn’t answer, and instead put away their buster guns, “Very well. I yield to you. As long as your opponent is still alive, the Game of Destiny isn’t over. One day you’ll regret not finishing me off!”

Atlas teleported away, leaving some of her data for Ashe and Grey to copy. Once the data was absorbed by the two Hunters, some sparks suddenly appeared for a moment on their bodies before both of them let out pained yells.

“W-What’s this…? What’s happening…?” Ashe asked, still feeling pain all over her body.

“M-Model A… what’s… going on…?” Grey asked, before his mind and Ashe’s went blank and data started pouring out into their heads, started with a faint image of Model Ws.

_“EXTRACTING FROM CODE AW15 TO CE70. EXPANDING REPORT DATA.......Congratulations. The Model A which I created is protected by a cipher that_ _is broken only in battle. You, who broke the first cipher, are worthy to know_ _its truth and power. Through my research of the lost technology, I have created_ _a key to unlock the door to a new evolution. Biometal Model W… He who holds_ _it, will hold the power to rule the world. But it will take much time before_ _people will finally appreciate my work. Sacrifices are necessary to awaken Model_ _W. Model Ws which I have hidden throughout the world are waiting to be awakened._ _Waiting for when the one who understands my work appears, to receive the power._ _”_

Ashe’s and Grey’s minds went back to normal and Ashe decided to ask the Biometal, “Model A… What just happened to us?”

 _“I’m not sure…”_ There was a short pause before Model A spoke up once more, _“_ _Was that the data recorded on me that those Sage_ _s were talking_ _about? The data on the one who made Model W… and me?_ _”_

“Model A, are you okay? We’ve got to help the others,” Grey asked before turning to the door in front of him, “I think they’re behind this door…” Ashe and Grey went through the door into a small room along with a wall made of unfamiliar metal.

“Hey, who’s there!?” The voice of a man was heard faintly from the wall before the sound of the man laughing was heard, “No matter, you can’t break through this wall made of ceratanium!”

Ashe let out a sigh before stepping closer to the wall, “I’ll handle this,” Ashe morphed into Atlas and used her knuckle busters to break through the wall easily.

“D-Don’t hurt me!” The man backed away in fear as he saw Ashe in Atlas’ body.

Ashe transformed back into her human form and so did Grey, calming down the panicked man before they climbed back to the control room. The Hunters explained the whole thing to the man about Atlas, and asked for the Raiders’ help as they needed parts to fix the broken train before they could reach Legion. The man nodded in understanding after Ashe and Grey ended their explanation.

“Thanks for saving our lives, big sis and big bro!” The man thanked the Hunters.

“Y-Yeah, but could you drop the big sis big bro thing?” Ashe asked, “So Wolff, can we use the parts to repair our train?”

The man, Wolff, nodded, “No worries, we’ll take care of that! You just sit back and enjoy the night while we Raiders work on the train! I’ll give you a guarantee that the train will be ready to go by the next morning!”

“Alright, thanks!” Grey turned to Ashe, “Come on, let’s go back to the camp to rest and head out to the Legion tomorrow!”

Ashe pumped her fists in excitement, “Finally, we’re going to the Legion!”


	8. To the Legion HQ!

The next morning came and the two Hunters, Ashe and Grey, came out from the 00 building before heading out towards the train station. The train had been fixed by the Raiders as the train was being rechecked by some of the Raiders and the others were resting around the area. The Raiders got off the train as they had done checking and let the Hunters board the train.

“Rock ON! Model A!” The two silver-haired Hunters transformed into their Model A forms and boarded the train, heading out towards the Legion HQ.

After a couple of hours of travelling by the train, they reached the station and headed outside, only to be greeted by the sound of an explosion, “What was that sound!?”

“I think Mavericks are behind this!” Ashe turned to Grey, “Come on, we’ve got to hurry to the HQ!”

Grey nodded in agreement before they pulled out their buster guns and headed towards the building in front of them. A Galleon came to them in a bike as they entered, but Grey’s charged shot managed to knock it away towards the stairs above it and destroyed it. Ashe and Grey got their Homing Shot guns ready as they went up the stairs, shooting at every Mechaniloid in their way.

Ashe and Grey reached the top floor of the building and crossed over to the next one through a small bridge. As Ashe took the lead, she aimed her Homing Shot gun on the Mechaniloids hanging on the ceiling and destroyed them, leaving Grey to knock away the remains as he followed closely behind Ashe.

They went out of the bridge, finding themselves outside and on the roof of the building. Ashe and Grey jumped across to the next buildings while shooting away the Mechaniloids in their way until they reached another door leading into another building. More Galleons riding on their bikes came as they entered, but Grey’s charged shots had either knocked them away to a wall or platform.

Ashe cleared away the last few Galleon Hunters in the way before they went through a door into a messy room with dim light, “What’s this place?”

A man in purple and a red scarf teleported into the room, “TARGET ACQUIRED. INITIATE INFORMATION ANALYSIS. COMMENCE PLANNED COMBAT PROCEDURE? INPUT RESPONSE…”

 _“Aw, this is the weirdest guy I’ve ever met!”_ Model A’s voice was heard, _“He’s the weirdest of all the other Mega Men we’ve met!”_

“INVALID INPUT. INPUT RESPONSE,” Siarnaq said in his robotic voice.

Ashe pointed both of her buster guns at Siarnaq angrily, with Grey backing away as he saw the angry look on Ashe’s face, “Look, weird guy, why don’t you just shut up already before I blast you to pieces!”

Siarnaq pulled out a purple Biometal, “RESPONSE ACCEPTED… COMMENCE COMBAT…!” Siarnaq merged into his Model P form before disappearing from the silver-haired Hunters’ sight.

“Uh… Ashe?” Grey gathered the courage the angry Ashe, who completely ignored him as she had seen Siarnaq reappearing on the small platform above the door on the other side of the room, “Okay… remind me that it’s pointless to talk to Ashe once she’s irritated with weird guys…”

 _“I’ll keep you reminded then…”_ Model A’s voice echoed in Grey’s head, _“Anyways, shouldn’t you be helping her taking out that weird guy?”_

Grey pulled out his buster guns, “That’s what I’m about to do.”

Siarnaq suddenly appeared in front of Grey, surprising him as the Shadow Mega Man threw a shuriken right in front of him. Grey quickly moved out of the way, but the shuriken had left a scar on his helmet. Grey’s body was about to hit the ground, but he used his hands to support his body before rolling on the ground to lessen the power of the impact from falling.

Ashe dashed past him and headed straight towards Siarnaq with her Homing Shot gun ready, but Siarnaq had disappeared from his place and reappeared on the platform in front of Ashe and Grey. Claws came out from the back of Siarnaq’s hand before he dropped down and used the claw to hang himself of the platform with his other hand raining down kunai on the two Hunters.

Siarnaq’s claw let go of the platform before he dropped down to the ground and disappeared. Siarnaq reappeared behind Ashe and was about to throw a shuriken at her, but Grey noticed him and released a charged shot at him, knocking him back before he disappeared. Siarnaq reappeared behind Grey and let out energy shuriken to surround him as he closed in on Grey.

Grey and Ashe dashed away towards the wall behind them, but the energy shuriken spread out from Siarnaq and hit the Hunters as they reached the platform above them. Grey stayed on the platform while Ashe dropped down and charged her buster, watching as Siarnaq started hanging on the other platform. Ashe jumped and released her reflect laser to hit the wall behind Siarnaq and bounced off towards his back.

As Siarnaq lost his grip on the platform and disappeared, Grey looked around on the platform while clutching to both of his buster guns, _‘Wait for him to appear, and I’ll finish him off with this attack…’_ Siarnaq suddenly reappeared behind Grey, who turned to him in surprise, but was prepared when he was about to throw another shuriken at him, “GIGA CRUSH!!!”

Siarnaq took the rapid shots directly before he fell off the platform and pulled Grey along with him. Ashe, who was standing right under the platform, sidestepped and let Siarnaq land hard on his chest before stretching out her arms to catch the falling Grey, only to have her pushed down by the Reploid’s weight.

“Ow, ow…” Ashe winced in pain as her hands were under Grey’s body, “Will you get off my hands, little brother…? Your insanely heavy weight is killing my hands!”

Grey got up and faced Ashe with an annoyed face, “Since when I’m your little brother?”

“Well, since…” Ashe put a finger on her chin to think, “Since I claimed you to be my little brother after you lost that bet on the first night!”

“Oh, brother…” Grey let out a sigh before he and Ashe turned to Siarnaq, who had got back to his feet.

“DAMAGE… CRITICAL! HAZARDOUS TO PROCEED WITH COMBAT ENGAGEMENT IN PRESENT CONDITION… RETREATING!” Siarnaq teleported away, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy. As soon as the data was absorbed by the Hunters, some sparks started appearing on their bodies for a moment as they cried out in pain. More data poured out into their heads, along with the image of a man with long blue hair in front of the image of Model Ws.

_“EXTRACTING FROM CODE CE71 TO FC60. EXPANDING REPORT DATA.....You who have broken the second cipher now stand at a fateful crossroads. If you continue to read this data, there is no turning back. You too are part of this plan. Biometal has the abillity to give its ‘Chosen One’ superhuman powers and combine to become a new lifeform. This combination results in a Megamerge, the transformation into a Mega Man. I’ve decided to select a new Chosen One suitable for Model W, the next step in evolution. Finding a suitable candidate in this world is nearly impossible. But I can do it, because as one of Legion’s Sage Trinity, I know everything about the world…”_

“Uh…” Ashe clutched her head out of dizziness, “So then… the creator of Model W is a part of Sage Trinity?”

“Seems like it…” Grey shook off the dizziness of his head.

 _“If he and Prometheus are connected, then that means we can’t trust the Sage Trinity either…”_ Model A’s voice was heard in Ashe’s and Grey’s heads, _“You two still wanna go?”_

There was a short silence between them before Grey decided to speak up, “If we don’t go and just run away, then we’re not going to find out about anything. Not about us, and not even about you, Model A…”

The sighing sound of Model A was heard, _“The data recorded on me is getting more and more outrageous…”_

“Come on, we should be close to the HQ by now,” Ashe said before she and Grey left the room, heading for the tallest building in the area, which was the Legion HQ where the Sage Trinity was.

Ashe and Grey took the elevator from the ground floor of the building before stopping on the top floor. The two Hunters saw that the three members of Sage Trinity were talking to each other, until they noticed that four floating objects were circling the blue-haired member. The Hunters barged into the room and saw that the blue-haired man was actually Albert, who was looking at them with a wicked look on his face.

 _“Hey, aren’t those Biometals?”_ Model A asked as he noticed the four floating objects around Albert.

“Two of the ciphers have been broken. I wanted to stall them longer… but they’re developing faster than I had expected. Excellent, Ashe, Grey! It pleases me,” Albert looked at the two shocked Hunters with a wicked smile.

“H-Hey, how do you know about us!?” Grey asked Albert, who laughed in return, “What’s funny about that!?”

“I know about you, Grey, and about Ashe as well! I know all about you two as if you’re my own children!” Albert raised both of his arms, “I want you two to grow, to evolve! Show me your strength!”

Ashe and Grey growled angrily before pulling out both of their guns, “MASTER ALBERT!!!”

The two Hunters charged at Albert angrily, shooting him with both of their guns, but the floating objects kept blocking their shots. Albert walked backwards towards the glass window behind him before the window broke due to the missed shots and the floating objects kept him in midair as he backed away through the broken window.

Albert looked at the two angered Hunters with a wicked smile, “We will meet again. You are, after all, made in my image,” With those parting words, Albert went down the building and made Ashe and Grey chase after him and looked down the building as well, only to find out that he was gone.

The red-haired member, Thomas, approached the two as they transformed back into their human and Reploid forms. Mikhail went down the building through the elevator, leaving the Hunters to tell Thomas about the data recorded on Model A, which was about the Model W and the person who created Model W.

“I see,” Thomas nodded in understanding after listening in to the Hunters’ story, “I’ll tell you everything we know. With these mechanical bodies, we’ve been able to live for centuries. When Albert became one of the Sage Trinity those centuries ago, he was already working on Model W. So I looked you two up in our database, but there was no information about either of you as if you never existed.”

“WHAT!?”

“But we’re standing right here in front of you!” Ashe protested, “What do you mean by no data!?”

“Calm down!” Thomas said to calm the Hunters down, “There’s a possibility that Albert might have erased your data from the database. I’m not exactly sure why, but since you two are here, he had to speed up his plan.”

Grey let out a frustrated sigh, “We’ve come all the way here and almost got killed, but now you’re telling us that you don’t know anything?”

“Bad news, everyone,” Mikhail appeared from behind the elevator doors and approached the group, “Mavericks are appearing all over the world. I think Albert has started hunting for food for his Model W.”

Model A floated out of Ashe’s pocket, _“_ _He knows the jig is up! He_ _’s going for a Hail Mary! Let_ _’s go!_ _”_ Model A turned to Ashe and Grey, who stayed silent, _“What’s with you two? We have to make Albert spill everything he knows about us, and yeah, heroic rescues along the way are fine too…”_ Model A saw that Hunters kept staying silent, _“What, are you scared?”_

“Huh? Us? You’ve got to be kidding! There’s no way we’re scared, right Grey?” Ashe elbowed Grey, who snapped out himself.

“Y-Yeah!” Grey nodded before turning to Ashe and Model A, “Come on, we’ve got to get ourselves some rest before we can go and get Albert to speak the truth!”

“Now that’s more I like it! Let’s head back to the camp then!”


	9. Highway Attack

“Grey! Wake up already!” The ponytailed Hunter’s voice was heard echoing in the bedroom of the silver-haired Hunters early in the morning as she looked down on her Reploid partner lying on the bed across hers, who didn’t respond to her calls and stayed on his bed, “Hey, wake up already! It’s already time for us to leave for the Highway area for our mission!”

“Just five more minutes…” Grey rolled away from Ashe on his bed, irritating the ponytailed Hunter even more as she put her hands on her hips while glaring at the sleeping Reploid.

“Seriously…” Ashe sighed in annoyance before she pulled out Model A from her pocket, “Model A, help me out, will you?”

 _“Sure thing, Ashe. But what kind of help do you want from me?”_ Model A asked before he saw the mischievous look on Ashe’s face, ‘Uh-oh… I think she’s up to something…’

It took a few seconds later before a loud crash was heard throughout the camp and the female silver-haired Hunter came out from the 00 building, running away from an angry Grey as Model A followed closely behind Ashe, “HEY!!! What’s the big idea, throwing my bed with me on it to the wall!? Hey! Ashe!”

“It’s not my fault that you’re really hard for me to wake up this morning!” Ashe said as she ran towards the 04 building before turning her head to Grey, “Plus, it’s Model A’s fault for giving me more strength while transformed!”

 _“Hey! That’s your idea on the first place!”_ Model A denied as he followed Ashe into the 04 building before Grey came in and chased them to the other side of the room and were trapped between Grey and the transerver.

“Hey, let’s just forget about all this and get on with our mission, alright?” Ashe asked innocently, but Grey glared at her for a moment as Model A floated back to Ashe’s pocket until he managed to calm down and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“Alright, let’s just go already…” Grey gave in before he and Ashe teleported themselves out to the Highway area.

The communicators on the Hunters’ ears turned on as they arrived and Mikhail’s voice was heard from them, _“There are people being chased by the Mavericks on that Highway ahead. It looks like all the people trying to flee in their cars have caused a traffic jam. The situation is gridlock. Drive back the Mavericks and buy time for the people down there to escape.”_

A car stopped in front of them and the driver’s head popped out of the car’s window, “Hey, move it! We’re sitting ducks here!”

“Don’t worry about the Mavericks! We’ll take care of them! When everything is clear, we want you to go and get to safety!” Ashe told the man before she and Grey moved out of the way to let the car pass.

The car moved a bit and stopped beside them, “I don’t know who the two of you are, but thank you!” The man looked back and saw queuing cars on the other side of the street, “There are some other cars stopped on the back! They need your help!”

“Alright, we’re on it!” Grey saluted at the man, much to Ashe’s confusion before the car sped away.

A plane-like Mechaniloid came closer to them and opened the doors on its lower body, letting out ice and snow from it. Ashe morphed into Atlas and charged her busters while Grey stayed and aimed his Homing Shot gun at the Mechaniloid. Ashe threw a small firebomb as the plane Mechaniloid opened up its doors, making it close back the doors.

Grey released his aimed Homing Shot before the Mechaniloid moved away and followed it along with Ashe, still in Atlas’ body. Ashe fired out another firebomb at the Mechaniloid before she charged her busters once more and let Grey hit the Mechaniloid with his charged shot. Ashe fired the first firebomb, making the Mechaniloid close its doors and let Grey morph into Buckfire and struck down the plane Mechaniloid with his rocket jump. Ashe finished off the Mechaniloid with the second firebomb, which destroyed the plane Mechaniloid.

With the Mechaniloid gone, the cars started speeding up and the traffic jam was cleared up. Ashe and Grey continued on farther into the area, destroying the attacking Mechaniloids as they passed by. One of the Mechaniloids lit up in red color as they dashed under it, following them slowly as they dashed farther and farther into the area.

They jumped across the broken roads, which were caused by the Mavericks’ attacks, and stopped when they saw a familiar figure standing on a broken pillar in front of large pool filled with many kinds of machines. The blue-haired figure noticed the Hunters standing behind him and turned around to face them while casually tossing and catching the blue Biometal in his hand.

“Thetis! Are you the one behind all this trouble?” Ashe asked as Thetis let out a smile.

“Wow, I’m flattered that you remember my name!” Thetis smiled at the two silver-haired Hunters before catching the Biometal for the last time and transformed into his Model L form, “Come,” Thetis motioned the Hunters to follow him, “I have something to show you.”

Thetis jumped into the pool in front of him and swam down to the bottom while Ashe and Grey followed him and jumped into the pool. The two Hunters landed on the bottom of the pool, which was partially made of ice blocks and saw a humming white machine, Biometal Model W, among the other machines in the water.

 _“Model W!?”_ Model A asked in disbelief, _“You can’t be attacking the highway just to feed that thing, can you?”_

Thetis laughed and smiled at them, “Yes, I can and that’s what I’m doing,” Thetis’ smile turned into a frown, “Those kinds of people above are the ones who destroyed the sea with litter! That’s unforgivable! You people have to desecrate the Earth to live on it.”

“So you take innocent lives!?” Grey asked angrily, “You kill humans just like yourself. And that’s what makes you a Maverick!”

“Me? A Maverick?” Thetis let out a chuckle, “You two are funny, but I’m no Maverick and I’m not just an ordinary human! I’m a Mega Man! We were planning on playing this little Game of Destiny to decide the Mega Man King by ourselves. You’re the ones that just happened to Rock On, then show up and be nuisances… so I’d say that kind of makes _you_ Mavericks!”

“We’ll see who the real Maverick here is!” Ashe pulled out her buster guns before she turned to Grey, “Grey, you with me?”

“You bet!” Grey nodded in agreement as he pulled out his buster guns.

Thetis swung his staff and released an ice dragon towards them, before swimming up. Grey morphed into Buckfire and shot out fire arrows at the dragon, destroying it. Ashe morphed into Atlas, but didn’t notice that Thetis had swum behind her and spun his staff, hitting Ashe on her back before swimming up once more.

Thetis swam down and stopped in front of Grey before releasing a couple of ice dragons at them. Just as Thetis was about to swim up, Grey released a few more fire arrows through the ice dragons and hit the Ice Mega Man. Thetis almost fell to the bottom of the pool from the attack, but managed to reactivate his propellers before creating a chunk of ice in front of him.

Thetis swung his staff to break the ice, sending ice spikes to different directions. Ashe and Grey dodged the spikes, before looking around to search for Thetis. Thetis swam down in front of them and was about to send more ice dragons at him, but Ashe had jumped to his level and punched him with her left buster before throwing a firebomb with her right buster.

Thetis was knocked against the pillar behind him, but managed to reactivate his propellers to swim towards the Hunters and spun his staff in the middle of the two. Grey fired out more fire arrows at Thetis, who swum away from the attack and the arrows headed for Ashe instead. Out of reflexes, Ashe ducked down and let the arrows pass above her head.

Thetis swam above their heads and sent out many ice dragons down at the Hunters, who had a hard time dodging the attack due to the number of the ice dragons. Grey kicked himself up with his rocket jump and managed to hit Thetis with his horns before he moved away and let Ashe throw another firebomb at him. Thetis fell and Grey took the chance to dash towards him and cut through a part of his armor with his horns.

Grey went back to Ashe’s side as they saw Thetis landing safely on the icy ground while clutching to his arm, where some of his armor was broken, and glared at them angrily, “It’s too bad… I thought you, at least, would understand what I’m trying to accomplish!” Thetis’ angry look turned into a smile as he turned to the Model W far beside him, “I won’t give up. I shall awaken Model W and change this world for the better!”

Thetis teleported away along with the Model W, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy. As soon as the data was absorbed by the two Hunters, some sparks appeared on their bodies for a moment as they let out pained yells. Data poured out from Model A into the two Hunters’ heads, along with a faint image of a male Reploid with long light blue hair and a female Reploid with light green hair.

_“EXTRACTING FROM CODE FC61 TO UC79. EXPANDING REPORT DATA. In order to find a Biomatch for Biometal Model W, first I created sibling Reploids. As well as giving them a portion of Model W’s power, I gave them 1 commandment. That was to determine the most powerful Mega Man. A commandment to Biomatch each of my Chosen Ones to a Biometal. And have them fight until only one of them was left. The survivor of this contest will attain the power of Model W, and become the ultimate Mega Man. Yes, the new King of the world, the Mega Man King.”_

_“With another cipher broken, we now know why Mega Men fight each other… But what about us? And who the heck are those Reploid siblings anyway?”_ Model A commented and asked as he thought back about the data pouring out from him before noticing the frowns on the two silver-haired Hunters’ faces, _“Hey, what’s wrong? Why the frowns on your faces?”_

“Huh?” Grey snapped out of his thoughts, “It’s nothing…”

“Yeah…” Ashe nodded in agreement.

 _“It seems like you managed to get everyone out of there safely,”_ Mikhail’s voice was heard from Ashe’s and Grey’s communicators, _“Just like what we would expect from Chosen Ones!”_

Ashe stayed silent as she was still deep in thought after hearing what Thetis had said, _‘I can merge with Model A, but was that an accident? Albert told us that he knew Grey and I so well that we’re like his children… Just… who are we anyway?’_ Ashe let out a sigh as she felt confused, _‘Who am I…?’_

“Ashe!” Grey called Ashe a few times, but got no response from his fellow Hunter, “Ashe!” Grey shook her shoulder, which snapped her back to reality, “Come on, we need to move right now! What’s the next mission?”

“The next mission…?” Ashe asked back, before she suddenly remembered about the mission, “Oh, yeah! I think it’s the ruins! The ruins are next!”

“The ruins, huh?” Grey asked himself before nodding and turned back to Ashe, “Alright, let’s go and report to the Legion HQ through the transerver before we head over to the ruins!”

“Alright, let’s go!”


	10. The Floating Ruins

Ashe and Grey reported in their mission in the Highway using the transerver at the back of the area before teleporting themselves to a small cave in a forest-like area. The two silver-haired Hunters headed out of the cave and saw that the road ahead of them was straight ahead and no Mechaloniloids were blocking their way.

“Alright, all clear!” Ashe said after she and Grey had checked the area and moved on, but the moving ground stopped them.

“W-What!? Aaargh!” Ashe and Grey flattened themselves on the ground as the ground they were on suddenly moved higher.

Once the ground stopped moving, Ashe got up and looked around, seeing that the ground they were on had floated high above the ground, “Huh!? W-We’re floating! What’s going on!?”

 _“Ashe! Grey! Can you hear me?”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from the two’s communicators as Grey got up to his feet, _“That area is experiencing a gravitational anomaly. Also, powerful energy reactions have been discovered. In all likelihood they are the cause of the gravitational anomaly.”_

“Alright, we’ll check this place out!” Grey ended the connection before turning to Ashe, “Let’s go! The one causing this gravitational anomaly should be at the back of this area!”

“Yeah,” Ashe nodded and was about to take a step forward when suddenly the wind around them started blowing hard, “Whoa! The wind in this area is strong!”

“Yeah, maybe it’s because we’re so high up!” Grey looked ahead and saw another floating ground in front of them, “But we have no choice other than to ignore the wind because we need to jump from one piece of ground to another!”

Ashe and Grey walked slowly as the strong blowing wind kept pushing them back before stopping at the edge of the ground. Grey jumped ahead and cleared the Mechaniloids on the ground away as he waited for Ashe to jump across. They shielded themselves behind the higher ground and waited for the strong wind to die down before they jumped over the higher ground and proceeded deeper into the ruins.

“Whoa!” Grey managed to grab a small tree branch before he could fall off the ground as the wind pushed him forward, but unaware that the wind had pushed Ashe towards him and made both of them fall off, “Yikes!”

“Sorry!” Ashe said as she held on for dear life on Grey’s leg, “Grey, can you pull both of us up?”

“I’ll… try…” Grey looked up and saw that his grip was slipping from the tree branch he was holding on to, “Darn it… the branch…”

Grey’s grip on the branch loosened and the two Hunters fell, but Ashe’s legs managed to land on a small floating platform. Ashe grabbed Grey’s leg hard as she tried pulling him up, but failed as he was too heavy, “I can’t pull you up!” Ashe noticed that the platform was going up towards the ground they were on, “Grey, I have a plan!”

“What is it…?” Grey asked from below.

“Listen, I need you to morph into Buckfire and use the rocket jump against that ground piece once I released your leg!” Ashe looked down at Grey, “Are you ready? I’m going to release it now!”

“Alright, go for it!” Grey yelled before Ashe released his leg.

Grey quickly morphed into Buckfire and kicked himself up against the ground, before landing safely on the ground piece across. Ashe morphed into Siarnaq before she jumped towards the ground Grey was on and pulled out her claws from the back of her hand, clinging herself on to the edge of the ground before pulling herself up and morphed back into her Model A form.

Grey, who had turned back to his Model A form as well, took the lead as they went through a few Mechaniloids to blast through before jumping across to the next ground piece. With the wind blowing around the Hunters, not many Mechaniloids were seen around as most of them got blown away by the strong gusts of wind.

They walked through the empty ground and made it to the edge to see a tall tree growing in front of them. The two morphed into Siarnaq before they used their claws to cling to the tree without getting blown away by the wind. Once the wind died down, they climbed up the branches they were on before jumping to the nearby branches to cross to the next ground piece.

Just as they were both about to jump to the next ground piece, more gusts of wind blew. Grey ignored the wind and jumped on to the ground before transforming back into his Model A form. Ashe, who was on the branch lower than Grey used to be on, morphed back into her Model A form before jumping to grab the edge of the ground, but her grip slipped.

“Ashe!” Grey saw Ashe’s grip slipped and fell, but he managed to catch her in time, “Hang on, I’ll pull you up!” More gusts of strong wind blew and pushed Grey closer to the edge, but he managed to gather the strength to pull Ashe up higher and throw her behind him.

Ashe landed safely behind Grey before she helped him up, “Thanks Grey, but why do you even bother saving me even after I emptied out your pockets, throwing you and your bed just to wake you up, and talking to you a lot every night that you can’t sleep until I do?”

Grey let out a sigh, “I wish that you didn’t just remind me about those nightmares…” Grey turned to Ashe with a smile, “It’s just that we’re partners and I don’t think we can get through to Albert if we don’t start working together,” Ashe was about to open her mouth to speak, but Grey cut her off, “And it’s not because that I’m your little brother, okay? Because I’m not your little brother!”

“Alright, I promise that I’m not going to little brother anymore!” Ashe walked past Grey and stopped with her back still turned to him, “You look younger than me and we have the same hair color, so that’s why I considered you as my little brother,” Ashe turned her head to Grey as she smiled, “Shall we get going?”

Grey nodded before he followed Ashe and walked to the other edge of the ground, finding another small flying platform in front of them. They got on to the platform before it took them to a more static ground. Ashe and Grey got off the platform before it flew back to the other side and the two Hunters walked around the ground before they noticed the humming Biometal sitting on a small set of stairs next to them.

“Is that… Model W? But what is it doing here!?” Grey asked as he and Ashe looked up at the Biometal.

A man in green teleported in front of them and stood in front of Model W, “Inescapable destiny… So, you came, Model A Mega Men. But I’ll be taking the Model W.”

“Aeolus!” Ashe recognized the man in green, “What are you doing collecting all those Model Ws!?”

“That’s a silly question…” Aeolus turned his head away from the Hunters before he pulled out a green Biometal, “You call yourself Mega Men, yet you don’t even know the significance of Model W… You fear what you don’t understand, and eliminate what you fear… It’s because of foolish people like you that there is conflict.”

 _“I don’t know about all that ideological babbling about, but I personally think that it’s kinda like a threat,”_ Model A’s voice was heard.

“So it is,” Aeolus turned back to the Hunters, “In the ideal world of mine, fools like you have no place!” Aeolus transformed into his Model H form, “Time is up, you fools!”

Aeolus jumped up and used his jet wings to air-dash towards Ashe before getting his sabers ready to cut her, but Ashe managed to sidestep in time and pulled out her buster guns to counter the attack with her charge laser followed by her laser shots. While kept Aeolus busy, Grey took the chance to dash behind him and morphed into Thetis before sending an ice dragon at him.

Aeolus charged at Grey before swinging his shorter saber and sent out whirlwind to hit both Ashe and Grey. Grey took the hit directly as he was the closest to Aeolus while Ashe only got blown away a little by the attack. Grey morphed back into his Model A form before charging his buster gun and aimed his Homing Shot gun at him, but Aeolus’ three-slash combo had knocked his gun and Grey missed his shot.

As Aeolus was about to approach Grey, Ashe had fired her reflect laser and distracted him away for Grey to release his charged shot followed by a few regular buster shots. Aeolus swung his shorter saber once more and two whirlwinds headed towards the Hunters. Ashe and Grey jumped out of the way to dodge, but not noticing that Aeolus had jumped up and air-dashed once more towards Ashe before landing a slash from each of his saber on her shoulder.

Grey released a small charged shot before following it up with his Homing Shot, distracting him away from Ashe as she charged her buster gun. Grey charged his buster gun as well, leaving him to hit Aeolus with his Homing Shots. Aeolus dashed at Grey and landed a cross-slash on his chest, knocking it back, before he continued with his three-slash combo.

Grey rolled away to dodge before turning to Ashe, who nodded at him, before turning back to Aeolus with his buster gun pointed at him, “Take this!”

The charged shot from Grey hit and knocked Aeolus away, before Ashe followed up with her reflect laser, “And eat this!” Aeolus was knocked against the small set of stairs where the Model W was before he slowly got back to his feet.

“A defective and a plebian… I’ll never acknowledge foolish people like you, Model A Mega Men!” Aeolus teleported himself away along with the Model W, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy. As soon as they absorbed the data, some sparks appeared on their bodies for a moment as they yelled in pain. More data poured out from Model A along with a faint image of a few people behind the shadows.

_“EXTRACTING FROM CODE UC80 TO AC195. EXPANDING REPORT DATA. The power of Biometal isn’t something to be had by just anyone. It’s a power which should only be obtained by a Chosen One, one with the ability to change the world. I devised this cipher to lock away the power of the Biometal. A cipher that would allow only the Chosen One to unleash its power. In other words, it’s locked to its Biomatch. All Humans who get a bionic body have to come to Legion for inspection. All Reploids have come to Legion to have their life-cycle setting checked. I made sure that every bionic body part and Reploid I inspected was infused with my DNA. That is the key to the cipher, the proof of being the Chosen One. Yes, by viewing this data, you now have within you my DNA.”_

_“Who is this guy anyway!?”_ Model A asked in frustration.

“… So, we’re relatives of Albert!?” Ashe asked in disbelief.

 _“I know it’s hard to take in, but try not to think about it,”_ Model A comforted the two shocked Hunters.

“Uh… I guess…” Grey nodded hesitantly.

 _“That Albert guy just used his position as one of the Sage Trinity to do whatever he wanted!”_ Model A continued in irritation.

“It’s true that Albert knows about technology more than anyone, but we don’t know that was the kind of man he was,” Thomas’ sighing was heard from Ashe’s and Grey’s communicators, “We should’ve known better…”

“It’s okay, we were kinda prepared for it,” Ashe replied as she reached for her communicator.

 _“Alright, the area should stabilize soon. You should head to Scrapyard for the next destination,”_ Thomas said before he ended the connection.

“Okay,” Grey stretched his arms tiredly, “One more to go and we’re back to the camp for resting!”


	11. Scraps and Junk

Ashe and Grey reported their mission in the ruins before they teleported themselves to a small room with some junk in it. They went out the room and the sounds of operating machines were heard outside. The area where they were was filled with machines, and a mountain of dirt was seen not too far from their location.

 _“This is a Scrapyard,”_ Mikhail’s voice was heard from the Hunters’ communicators, _“There are mountains of discarded machines, and they were covered in snow until recently. Imagine that!”_

Ashe and Grey looked around the area, and saw that there were only machines and dirt all over the place, “We don’t see any snow.”

 _“The heat from the machines melted them,”_ Mikhail told the two, _“The machines here were thrown away because they were supposedly broken, but became Mavericks and started working again.”_

 _“What!? Scrap that just starts working again!?”_ Model A asked in disbelief.

 _“Yes,”_ Mikhail replied, _“That’s why we had you two here. We need you to take down the one controlling the scraps and destroy the Mavericks.”_

“Alright, let’s go Grey!” Ashe ended the connection and said before she turned around and saw that Grey was nowhere to be found behind her, “Grey?”

“Down here…” A hand popped out from the sea of junk behind here, “I’m… sinking!”

Ashe took the hand and pulled Grey halfway up as he climbed back up on his own, “Grey, what happened?”

Grey rose to his feet and sighed in relief after making back up, “I stepped into that sea of junk and the next thing that happpened was I was sinking in really fast!”

Ashe laughed, “Yeah, I’m very well aware that your body is really heavy,” Ashe pushed Grey ahead of her, “Go on ahead, I’ll watch your back in case you sink into another sea of junk.”

“Alright,” Grey looked at the path ahead of them, which was like a maze filled with junk, “And stay closely behind me. The maze here can easily separate us apart.”

Grey didn’t wait for Ashe’s response and went on ahead into the maze and took the bottom path. He charged his buster gun, preparing for any Mechaniloids coming at him and released it as soon as he saw some junk moving and formed into a body of a Mechaniloid. The junk Mechaniloid was destroyed and Grey moved on deeper into the maze, not noticing that he was on his own.

More Mechaniloids started appearing more as Grey went deeper into the maze and he pulled out his gun before turning around to expect Ashe standing behind him, only to find out that Ashe was missing, “Oh, great… Model A, you there?” Grey waited for the Biometal’s response, only to notice that he wasn’t around him, “Excellent. Even Model A is with Ashe. Now I wonder why he always hangs out around her.”

On the other side of the maze, the female silver-haired Hunter was on her own as she walked through the maze. She let out a sigh as she passed through the same weak Mechaniloids before blasting them away with her Homing Shots. She let out another sigh as she walked to another dead end in the maze.

“Now I’m completely lost,” Ashe let out a sigh and turned around, away from the dead end, “Model A, any clues about where Grey had gone?”

 _“Uh…”_ Model A paused for a moment, _“Sorry, I can’t detect his energy reading nearby. He’s either taken down by Mavericks or already far away ahead of us.”_

“Great…” Ashe backtracked her way and leaned against the wall, not noticing a hidden switch behind her, “Now how are we supposed to find him?” Ashe walked back through the way she came from, not seeing that a hole had opened up in front of her.”

 _“Uh… Ashe?”_ Model A asked, noticing the hole in front of Ashe.

“Yeah?” Ashe replied as she kept walking.

 _“A hole,”_ Ashe stopped walking, _“And now it’s under your feet.”_

“Huh?” Ashe’s eyes grew wide when she saw the hole under her before she fell, “Aaah!!!”

Ashe fell into the hole and hit a platform, before slipping off it and fell deeper in. A loud crash was heard as she landed on mountains of scraps, which were the remains of Mechaniloids. She rolled down the highest mountain of Mechaniloid remains and some familiar red cables were seen before she landed on the feet of the scrap mountain.

“Ow… My head hurts and I feel dizzy…” Ashe sat up, rubbing her head.

“It’s better than having a really tired body after destroying all those Mechaniloids on your own…” The mountain of scraps suddenly moved, and Grey got up from under the scraps, glaring at Ashe, “So you’re watching my back, huh? The last time I turned around, you were nowhere to be found!”

“Sorry! I tripped over a scrap and fell!” Ashe told Grey, who kept glaring at her, “By the time I got up, you’re not in front of me anymore!”

“Oh yeah!!!” A faint yelling voice was heard, followed by the sound of an electric guitar.

“And what was that?” Grey turned to the direction where the sounds came from.

“No idea, but I think a Maverick is making a concert of its own,” Ashe joked, getting another glare from Grey, “What?”

Grey turned away from Ashe and walked past her, heading towards the direction where the sounds came from, “Yeah, very funny.”

Ashe followed Grey towards a door and went through it, going into a pitch black room. Spotlights on the ceiling of the room lit up, giving the light on a Pseudoroid on a small stage made of worn metal with a guitar on his hand. The Pseudoroid played a tune on his guitar as the spotlights shone on him after the Hunters entered the room.

“I see you pushed your way through all of those Mavericks to get a special front row seat to watch me perform,” The Pseudoroid put his guitar on his side and looked down at the Hunters “That’s pretty Mega of you, Model A Mega Men. I’m Vulturon. I play the part of the prince who kisses Model Ws and wakes them up!”

“There’s a Model W here too!?” Ashe asked in surprise.

“Not so fast, that’s where the VIP seats are. I’m afraid you can’t go in there. What do you say we start the show?” The Pseudoroid, Vulturon, put his guitar back into position, “I’ll play the guitar, and you’ll sing the vocals. I’m looking forward to the finale as you scream your last breaths!”

“Nobody’s singing anything for you, freak!” Ashe got her buster guns ready, “You’re too ugly to be a rock star!”

Grey got his buster guns ready, “I hate to say this, but I kinda agree with that.”

Vulturon jumped up and played his guitar loudly, making the Hunters cover their ears and let Vulturon knock the two of them with his guitar. Vulturon flew away and landed on a speaker made of junk and played his guitar, making scraps and junk gather around the speaker. Vulturon stopped playing his guitar and the scraps and junk were thrown at the Hunters.

Grey charged his buster gun and used his Homing Shot to blast away the flying scraps before turning to Vulturon, who had flown behind him. Grey released his charged shot and hit Vulturon’s head, but Vulturon didn’t seem to be bothered. Ashe followed up with her reflect laser, but the attack reflected against his guitar and hit the wall instead.

Grey released another Homing Shot, but bounced back as Vulturon started playing once more and created a sound wave barrier. Ashe got both of her buster guns ready and waited for Vulturon to stop playing and let out her Giga Crush attack, mostly hitting Vulturon’s body. As Ashe recharged her strength, Grey released a charged shot right before Vulturon let out shockwaves at the ground, making the scraps and junk on the ground to come to life.

Ashe blasted away the living scraps and gave Grey the opening to release his Homing Shot at Vulturon. Ashe followed up with her charged laser at Vulturon’s arm and cancelled his flying and let Grey to release his charged shot. Vulturon flew up once more after taking the hit from Grey’s charged shot, landing on another speaker before playing his guitar.

Ashe and Grey covered their ears once more as Vulturon started playing, not noticing the gathering scraps and junk around it. Vulturon stopped playing and teleported between Ashe and Grey before sending out the scraps at them. Grey took the attack from the flying scraps while Ashe got hit by Vulturon’s guitar.

Grey quickly got up to his feet and finished up Vulturon with his Giga Crush, knocking the Pseudoroid off his small metal stage, “What! This was supposed to be Mega’s death concert, not mine!” Vulturon let out a pained yell before his body glowed and exploded, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy.

Grey looked at the door on the other side of the room before turning to Ashe, “I feel some strange energy reading behind that door.”

“Let’s check it out then,” Ashe and Grey went through the door and saw the familiar female Reploid with white and blue armor along with another piece of Model W.

“I hear it…” Pandora closed her red eyes while hovering near the Model W, “The discarded machines… the Mechaniloids… Their voices of sadness… of pain… of anger… All food for Model W.”

“You’re… Pandora!” Ashe recognized the hovering Reploid.

Pandora opened her eyes and looked at the silver-haired Hunters, “Even as you awoke… destiny had already been set in motion.”

 _“What the heck are you talking about!?”_ Model A asked in confusion.

Pandora turned to Grey, “Grey… can you not hear it…? The cries of this world… of this planet…?”

Grey stepped forward angrily, “Of course I hear it! How could I not!?” Grey pointed at Pandora angrily, “And you always seem to be at the center of those screams.”

Pandora slowly shook her head, “That’s not so…”

“What!?” Ashe and Grey asked in unison, both in confusion.

“Those screams… are because of you two and that Albert fellow… Even as you awoke… destiny had already been set in motion,” Pandora replied, leaving the two Hunters still in confusion.

Model A’s sighing sound was heard, _“This thing is getting nowhere! Just what does she mean by that!?”_

“The time will come… when you shall know everything,” Pandora turned away from the two Hunters and faced Model W, “And you will be driven to despair…” Pandora teleported away from the area along with Model W, leaving the two confused Hunters.

“We’ll know everything? Driven to despair? What was that about?” Grey whispered as he asked himself.

“Pandora…” Ashe looked up at the spot where Pandora used to be, “Does she know our secret…?”

 _“Hmph, she took the Model W with her,”_ Mikhail’s voice was heard through the Hunters’ communicators, _“She’s definitely odd,”_ Mikhail let out a sigh, _“Anyway, good work you two. The Mavericks seem to have calmed down, so you may send us the mission report and rest up for the day.”_

“Alright,” Grey turned to Ashe, who was still looking up and was spacing out in her thoughts, before approaching her and put a hand on her shoulder, “Come on, let’s go back. We have more missions tomorrow.”

“Okay…” Ashe turned to Grey before he went ahead to the transerver at the back of the area and Ashe turned back to the spot where Pandora used to be, _‘Prometheus, Pandora, and Albert… If we could make them to speak the truth, we might be able to find out who we really are and make sure whether or not we’re relatives of Albert…’_ Ashe let out a sigh, _‘I really hope that’s not the truth…’_

Ashe walked to the direction where Grey headed off to before they both teleported back to the camp.


	12. The Burning Control Center

The next morning came, and the silver-haired Hunters headed out towards the Control Center just as instructed by the remaining two members of the Sage Trinity. They teleported themselves into a big hallway in the Control Center, which was filled by burning chandeliers hanging on the ceiling along with some burning furniture accompanied by Mechaniloids running all over the place.

“Whoa…! This heat is unbearable…!” Grey commented as he looked up at the burning chandeliers and the burning furniture in the room, “What the heck is going on here?”

 _“That building is the Control Center for several energy furnaces in the surrounding city,”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from the Hunters’ communicators, _“But the Mavericks have caused an uncontrollable thermal runaway.”_

 _“If we don’t do something, the energy furnaces will explode. These guys don’t mess around, do they!?”_ Model A’s voice was heard, not noticing that Grey had fallen to his knees.

 _“We don’t know how long those furnaces have until they explode. Do something to take charge of that Control Center,”_ Thomas ended the connection.

“Alright, we need to move now-Grey!” Ashe turned to Grey and was surprised to see that her partner had collapsed to his knees, “Grey! Are you okay!?”

“Not… really…” Grey slowly got up to his feet and panting while holding on to Ashe for support, “My systems are overheating… I think I need a moment to adapt with this heat…” Grey fell back to his knees, “Just go on ahead… and I’ll catch up to you…”

“No way, I’m not leaving you here!” Ashe said sternly before she grabbed Grey’s arm and put it over her shoulder, “You saved my life once and I’m returning the favor now.”

Grey turned to Ashe and saw the determination on her eyes before nodding, “Okay…” Grey turned to the hallway and spotted a door on the other side, which was blocked by Mechaniloids, “But the Mavericks…”

“I can handle them,” Ashe pulled out her buster gun with her free hand before turning to Grey, “I only need you with the Homing Shot to clear things out fast. Can you do it?”

Grey nodded weakly before pulling out his Homing Shot gun, “I’ll do… what I can…”

Ashe along with Grey headed through the hallway, and blasted through the Mechaniloids as they came in their way. Ashe charged her buster gun before shooting out a reflect laser to destroy a Galleon with a green blade on its arm, before the laser bounced and hit a crawling hermit crab Mechaniloid above it. Grey aimed his Homing Shot gun at a pair of Galleons with green blades on their arms standing in front of them with their blades ready to hit them, but they were destroyed before the blades could even touch the two Hunters.

Ashe and Grey went through the door, only to meet a dead end in front of them. They both looked up and saw that helicopter Mechaniloids were hovering far above them, along with a few different Galleons which had bazookas on their shoulders. A door was found above the top most Galleons with the bazooka, right above the helicopter Mechaniloids and Galleons.

Grey removed his arm from Ashe’s shoulder, “I’m okay now, I guess…” Grey looked back up at the door, “Maybe we can reach the door much easier if we morph into Aeolus and use the jet wings to air-dash up.”

“Good idea,” Ashe nodded in agreement before they both morphed into Aeolus and started climbing the walls along with help of their jet wings.

Grey took the wall where the door was on, while Ashe took the opposite one as the other two walls had been destroyed. Grey held both of his pink sabers in his hands while using his feet to kick himself into the air before using his jet wings to air-dash higher and land on a platform where a Galleon was standing before slashing it with both of his sabers just as it was about to shoot out some missiles at him.

Ashe continued climbing while slashing away the helicopter Mechaniloids’ propellers, making them fall. She climbed on to a platform and dashed towards the Galleon on the platform, slashing it with both of her sabers. Ashe looked up at the door, which was still farther up from her before she continued climbing with the help of her jet wings.

Ashe and Grey finally reached the last platforms and slashed the Galleons on them before heading through the door. The Hunters found themselves standing in another hallway, but with spikes on the ceilings and some on the floor, along with a few more Mechaniloids blocking their way from the door on the other side.

Ashe and Grey moved on in the hallway and slashed away any bladed Galleons in the way to reach the door before morphing back to their Model A form. They found themselves in place with no ceilings in it, but filled with broken tubes all over the place. A Model W was floating in the middle of the room, along with the familiar male Reploid standing below it.

Prometheus turned to the Hunters once he noticed them coming, “It’s been a while, you two. I see that you’re surviving the Game of Destiny,” Prometheus let out an evil grin, “So, have you two found out anything about yourselves?”

“One thing for sure is that we’re nothing like you!” Ashe replied in annoyance.

Prometheus let out a laugh as he heard Ashe’s reply, “Funny, I thought that we’re all the same.”

“Shut up already!” Grey yelled angrily as he glared at Prometheus, “What do you know about us anyway!?”

The evil grin on Prometheus’ face turned into an annoyed expression, “Don’t bark at me you scum!” Prometheus glared back at Grey before turning to the Model W above him, “I’m only here to retrieve this Model W,” Prometheus turned back to the Hunters with an evil smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll cut you to ribbons soon enough. Look forward to it!”

Prometheus teleported away along with the Model W, leaving the angered Hunters, “Yeah, right!” Ashe yelled angrily, “We’ll blast you to pieces before you can even get your scythe ready!”

Just Ashe was about to run ahead to the next room, a bee-like Pseudoroid flew down in front of her while carrying a giant beehive, “My, my! Did little Prometheus leave already?” The Pseudoroid saw that only the two Hunters were in the area before letting out a sigh, “He’s so impatient. In a moment the energy furnaces will explode and a beautiful fire flower will bloom, filled with sweet nectar. The nectar of terror.”

“So you’re behind the thermal runaway!” Grey concluded before he pulled out his buster guns.

“That’s right, boy…” The Pseudoroid nodded, “I am Queenbee. I’ll give you a taste of my special nectar… Despair with a touch of bitterness.”

“Sorry, not interested,” Ashe said bluntly before pulling out her buster guns.

The hive Queenbee was carrying opened up to send out a few missiles at the two Hunters, but the two managed to dodge the attack easily before releasing their reflect laser and charged shot on the hive. Grey shot out a shot from his Homing Shot gun at the hive, which was starting to weaken. Ashe followed up with another reflect laser, destroying the hive before some bee Mechaniloids were sent out to them.

Grey morphed into Aeolus and air-dashed up to reach Queenbee’s level before bringing down his sabers at her. Fire shots came from the bee Pseudoroid’s stinger, raining down on the two Hunters before she flew up and flew back down with another giant beehive attached to her. The hive opened up and sent out light lasers at the Hunters, who managed to dodge them barely.

Queenbee flew up high above them, before shooting out a big fireball from the bottom of the hive. The Hunters dodged the fireball, but didn’t notice that the attack had caused some of the panels on the floor to burn and sent the panels towards them. The burning panels hit the two unexpecting Hunters, who were still lying on the ground to dodge the previous attack.

Ashe got back to her feet quickly and jumped to aim her Homing Shot both at the beehive and Queenbee herself before releasing the shots. Grey jumped and slashed the beehive a few times with both of his sabers to destroy it. Queenbee let out a few shots along with some fire shots from her stinger before she flew up and flew back down with another beehive attached to her.

Grey sent out a pair of whirlwinds at the hive before slamming down both of his saber on it, leaving Ashe to shoot out her reflect laser from behind the Pseudoroid. Ashe followed up with her Giga Crush, hitting Queenbee’s main body and left the beehive untouched. Grey jumped up and released another pair of whirlwinds along with another slam from his sabers to destroy the beehive before he morphed back into his Model A form and finished her off with his own Giga Crush attack.

“You refuse my precious gift of despair!?” Queenbee asked before she let out a pained yell and her body glowed before exploding, leaving her data for Ashe and Grey to copy.

“Now with that done, time to cool this place down!” Ashe said before she walked towards the door, only to be stopped when her communicator along with Grey’s turned on.

 _“Ashe! Grey!”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from the communicators, _“We’ve got a report on the newest Model W activity!”_

“Really!? Where is it?” Grey asked.

 _“It’s located in the Quarry, near the Hunter Camp,”_ Thomas replied, _“Hunters have Mavericks pinned down, but they can’t move in any further because of the rough terrain. It’s up to you two to get into the Quarry, then find and retrieve the Model W,”_ There was a short pause before Thomas continued, _“There are more reports that tell us that there’s a large airship closing in on the Quarry. Albert may already be aware of what’s going on, so be careful.”_

Ashe ended the communication before letting out a loud sigh, “Great. We’re not even finished with the mission here, but we’ve got another one already!”

“I know it sucks, but let’s just bear with it and cool this place down before we head over to the camp,” Grey walked past Ashe before the two Hunters walked through the door.

On the ground right under the Hunter Camp, a pair of brown haired people was standing in front of a rock. The female one, who had her long brown hair in a ponytail, let out a sigh as she put her hand down from the communicator on her ear before turning to the male one, who had his long brown hair untied, as he stopped pushing the rock.

“It’s no use… I can’t contact the base for help,” The female one told the male one with another sigh.

“We’ve got to figure out another way,” The male one turned around from the rock and looked around the dark big room they were in, “There’s another entrance from a Hunter’s Camp, so don’t worry about it. Right now, we need to move and find that Model W for us to destroy!”

The ground suddenly shook violently, and faint mechanical sounds were heard from above them. The ceiling broke down, revealing a gold-colored spider Mechaniloid with colorful gems attached to its legs. The two brown-haired people stepped back as the Mechaniloid came crawling down towards them and stopped when it was right above the two.

“Another Mechaniloid…” The female one spoke up, getting a nod from the male one.

“Another Spidrill… First it was a Crushpactor, and there’s another one of this here as well…” The male one turned to his partner, “You ready?” After getting a nod from his partner, he pulled out a red Biometal along with a blue Biometal.

“ROCK ON!”


	13. Model ZX! Last Cipher!

“Wow, I never knew this kind of dark cave could even exist under the Hunter Camp!” Ashe said in surprise as she and Grey walked down the dark cave.

“Really?” Grey turned to Ashe, “I thought that it’s common to have these kinds of caves for Hunters…”

“The underground bedrooms are common, but not caves like this one. The camp I used to live in didn’t have something like this,” Ashe replied as she looked around the cave, “But still, what could a Model W be doing here anyway? It’s not like there are something to feed Model W with…”

“I don’t know, but maybe we can find out something if we move deeper inside,” Grey turned back to the dark path ahead of him, but stopped suddenly when a shadow passed by in front of him, “What was that!?”

“What’s what?” Ashe asked, seeing that nothing was in front of him.

“I think I saw something moving,” Grey pulled out his Homing Shot gun, “Get your Homing Shot gun ready. Maybe we can try to locate and destroy them with our Homing Shots.”

Ashe and Grey scanned the area around them with their Homing Shot guns before releasing their shots. The remains of the Mechaniloids flew around the Hunters as they exploded, until none of them detected around anymore. They looked down on their feet and saw that small parts of Mechaniloid legs around them.

“Spider Mechaniloids…” Ashe said as she recognized the Mechaniloid remains before she turned to the dark path ahead while still holding her Homing Shot gun, “And I’ve got the feeling that they’re not the last ones here.”

Grey scanned the ceiling of the room with his Homing Shot gun and detected a few more Mechaniloids crawling down, “Yup, they’re definitely not the last ones here…”

Ashe and Grey aimed their Homing Shot guns at the crawling spider Mechaniloids, destroying them fast before they could reach the ground. Ashe and Grey moved on deeper into the dark path, using their Homing Shot guns to detect and destroy any invisible enemies around them. The dark path soon started to get brighter and brighter as they went further, but stopped when they saw a broken giant Mechaniloid in front of them with its remains had some cuts on it.

 _“Look at that!”_ Model A’s voice echoed in the two’s heads, _“Who could’ve done all this? Another Mega Man? But Albert’s guys shouldn’t have to fight the Mavericks…”_

Ashe knelt down for a moment to take a closer look at the remains before getting up and turned to Grey, “We better hurry. Whoever did this must be looking for Model W.”

Ashe and Grey moved on deeper into the cave, which was getting brighter and brighter. The Mechaniloids in the area were clearly visible to them as they moved on after destroying them with their Homing Shots. They continued through the path until they made it to a place bright enough for them to see a young man along with a young woman standing on the area while looking up at a piece of Model W hanging on a pair of thick cables.

“Who’s there!?” Grey asked as he and Ashe got their buster guns ready, getting the attention of the two people in front of them.

“What’s a girl and a kid doing here?” The young woman asked, before a blue Biometal floated out of her pocket.

 _“Be careful, Vent, Aile! I sensed Biometal on them,”_ The blue Biometal warned the two.

A red Biometal floated out of the young man’s pocket, _“I’ve never sensed anything like this before. What are they?”_

 _“Two Biometals!?”_ Model asked in disbelief, _“Are they Mega Men?”_

Ashe approached the two casually, “Well, what do you think about being the nice guy and girl and hand us the Model W?”

“And what are you two going to do with that Model W?” The young man, Vent, asked.

“We’re going to retrieve it!” Grey went to Ashe’s side, “We’re not going hand it over to you!”

The young woman, Aile, let out a sigh before turning to Vent, who gave her a nod, before turning back to the Hunters, “You leave us no choice.”

Aile took the blue Biometal with her, and Vent took the red Biometal with him, before moving the two Biometals closer to each other. Vent and Aile were both engulfed with bright white light before red armor appeared on their bodies. Red helmets formed on their heads, before long golden hair came out from the back of their helmets. A green saber appeared in Vent’s hand while a white buster appeared in Aile’s hand before the two of them turned to the silver-haired Hunters.

Vent turned to Ashe, “I don’t want to hit a girl, but there’s a reason why we can’t hand it over to you.”

“We won’t let you have Model W,” Aile smiled at the two Hunters, “Especially if you’re Mega Men!”

Aile held her buster with one hand and charged it, and used her other hand to climb the wall behind her. Vent charged ahead at the Hunters while doing rolling slashes as Aile slid down the wall with her charged buster pointed at the two Hunters. Vent jumped out of the way and started climbing the wall behind the Hunters while letting Aile release her charged shot and hit Grey before she started climbing the wall once more.

Grey was almost thrown back against Ashe, who sidestepped and caught Grey’s arm before he fell and shot two Homing Shots at the two red armored Mega Men. Vent and Aile lost their grips on the wall and fell on the opposite sides, but Aile quickly recovered and countered with a few buster shots which hit Ashe and continued with a ground thrust which sent rocks flying towards Grey.

Grey shot the rocks away with his charged buster and through to Aile, but she managed to climb the wall behind her. Ashe quickly covered for Grey’s back and shot a reflect laser at Vent as he was about to send a sonic boom at them, cancelling the attack. The laser bounced off Vent’s body and almost hit Aile, who was sliding down with her charged buster.

Ashe got both of her buster guns ready as Vent had started climbing back the wall behind him and waited for him to come down a little bit before releasing her Giga Crush attack. The rapid shots managed to knock Aile away from the wall and left Grey to release his charged shot at her, but Vent kept his grip on the wall before jumping down on Grey with his saber ready to strike the Reploid down.

Grey noticed that Vent was coming and blocked his saber with his Homing Shot gun, allowing him to shoot him with his charged shot. Ashe shot out her reflect laser at Aile as she was about to counter the rapid shots, but was knocked back by Ashe’s reflect laser before it bounced off her body and hit Vent, knocking him against the ground.

With Vent down, Grey took the chance and climbed the opposite wall as Aile was climbing and slowly slid down while waiting for her to come closer to the ground. As Aile was a few meters away from the ground, Grey dash-jumped to the wall where Aile was and released his charged shot, knocking Aile against Vent on the ground.

“Nice work, partner!” Ashe turned to Grey, who had jumped down to her side, and smiled before they high-fived each other.

“Looks like we made a pretty good team,” Grey returned the smile before turning back to the two brown-haired Mega Men. Aile had got back to her feet, panting, before she turned back to Vent and helped him up. Two DNA from the two were absorbed by the Hunters, leaving the four Chosen Ones to be in pain.

“Aaargh!” Vent let out a pained yell, “What’s… this…?” Vent slowly turned to Aile, who was wincing in pain as well, “A-Aile…” Their minds went blank as data started pouring out from Model A into the four’s heads, along with a faint image of a man in golden spiky armor standing under a giant ring of metal.

_“EXTRACTING FROM CODE AC196 TO TC2343. EXPANDING REPORT DATA. This is the last cipher. You, who knows all about the plan. You have earned the right to receive the ultimate Biometal. Sleeping Model Ws everywhere feed on the fear of humans, waiting for their day of awakening. And when all Model Ws have combined, the ultimate Biometal will be born. Its name will be Ouroboros… The onewho holds the Ouroboros will evolve beyond the mere fusion of man and machine. What I seek is to become the ultimate Mega Man. My name is Master Albert. And I decide how things are going to be. You, who will usher in a new way of life in a new world… I hope that one day my research will pave the way to a new course of evolution.”_

The four Mega men stood in their place and had been transformed back into their human and Reploid forms along with their Biometals hovering near them. The Hunters thought back about the newly revealed data, which had shocked them as they had found out about what they hadn’t expected before.

“Ouroboros and the ultimate Mega Man…” Ashe started, “That’s Albert’s plan!”

 _“Now I get it… The reason why we were created…”_ Model A turned to the Hunters, _“Why you two can Rock On with me…”_

“Model A, do you remember?” Grey asked, his eyes filled with hope and curiosity.

“Model A, tell us what you know!” Ashe added, making the Biometal flew away a little farther from them.

“Can someone explain things to us too?” Vent asked, “When we resonated with you guys just now, we saw a lot of data.”

Aile nodded in agreement, “That man, Master Albert, created Model W, right?” The Hunters nodded in reply, “So who are you?”

 _“That’s kinda hard to explain…”_ Model A replied, turning to the two brown-haired Chosen Ones. The cables supporting Model W suddenly snapped, making it fall on the ground far below them. The four Chosen Ones along with their Biometals saw as the cables snapped and the Model W fell.

“This is bad…” Aile said, getting the attention of the others, “That Model W is going to make more Mavericks, which is going to make it tougher to get close.”

Ashe let out a sigh before smiling, “Well, the girl’s got a point,” Ashe turned to Vent with a fake sorry look on her face, “Sorry, I might’ve overdone it to you two especially you, the guy.”

“I don’t need your sympathy,” Vent bitterly replied and was about to approach the female Hunter, but Aile grabbed his hand and stopped him.

“Stop it, Vent,” Aile said sternly, before turning to the Hunters who had already transformed into their Model A forms and were about to leave, “Aren’t you going to finish us off?”

Ashe waved her hand without turning to the two brown-haired Chosen Ones, “Nah, that’s not what we’re here for.”

As Ashe and Grey headed out, Vent struggled to get free from Aile’s grip, “That girl… She’s nothing but trouble! I should’ve finished her off when I got the chance!”

“No, Vent!” As Vent broke free from her grip, Aile stepped in front of Vent and stopped him, “That’s not what we’re here for,” Aile turned to the direction where Model W used to be, “That Model W… We have to destroy it, and we need to act fast!”

“Since it fell into that gap, our fastest choice is to jump down there,” Vent turned to Aile, who was looking away from the gap where Model W had fallen, “Don’t worry, I’ll hold you and both of us will jump down there,” Vent saw that Aile had turned to him, but hesitantly, and he offered a hand to her, “Do you trust me?”

“Vent…” Aile looked into Vent’s eyes, before turning to his offered hand, and back to him before nodding, “Alright, I trust you.”

Vent and Aile transformed into their ZX forms before they approached the gap. Vent turned to Aile, who was standing behind him, and boldly swept her off the ground and carried her to the edge in bridal style, “Hold on tight! I don’t want you to fall!”

“VEEENT!!!”

As Aile yelled out of fear and embarrassment while being carried by Vent, Ashe and Grey were fighting against a giant spider-like Mechaniloid not too far below the two brown-haired Chosen Ones. Ashe and Grey had their backs on each other as they used their Homing Shots to destroy the smaller spider Mechaniloids climbing down the walls.

“Dang it! How is thing still able to move!?” Ashe asked angrily as she looked up at the Mechaniloid above the Hunters, “Did that Model W power this thing up or something?”

“I guess,” Grey released another Homing Shot at the small spider Mechaniloid in front of him, “We need a powerful attack to finish it off.”

“Heaaah!” Vent’s yell was heard before he slashed and destroyed the Mechaniloid with his saber and landed in front of Ashe and let Aile go from him.

“Huh?” Grey turned to the two Chosen Ones in front of them, “Wait, why did you help us? Aren’t you two here to kill us?”

“That’s not what we’re here for either,” Vent replied before putting his saber away.

“We’re… we’re here to destroy Model W, and that has been our objective to stop the Game of Destiny,” Aile went over to Vent’s side after recovering from the shock of jumping into the gap, “What are your names?”

“Huh?” Ashe was confused by the two’s help in the battle.

Vent let out a sigh, “My name’s Vent, and this is my friend and partner, Aile.”

Ashe and Grey transformed back into their human and Reploid forms with Model A hovering between them before Grey introduced himself and Ashe, “I’m Grey, and this is Ashe. This Biometal is Model A, and we’re all on the mission for the Legion.”

“The Legion… that’s something else,” Aile commented, feeling impressed, before she and Vent transformed back into their human forms with the two Biometals hovering in front of them, “This blue Biometal is Model X, our partner. This red one is Model Z, but it’s not ours, it’s…” Aile turned to Vent, who had lowered his head, and frowned, “It’s a memento from our dear friend…”

“Let’s… get outta here, shall we?” Vent suggested as he raised his head, but sadness was still on his face, “I think the camp is a better place to talk rather than this place.”

The four Chosen Ones went back up to the camp while Ashe and Grey told the other two Chosen Ones about the events which had happened. They were about Albert’s plan, about Prometheus, Pandora, and the other four Chosen Ones, who had the other four Biometals in their possessions. The four of them stopped near the entrance to the Quarry and the two brown-haired Chosen Ones nodded in understanding.

“So that’s what happened to the four stolen Biometals from the lab…” Vent turned to Aile, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure out a way to get the four of them back,” Aile replied with a nod before Vent turned back to the Hunters, “Model X and Model Z led us here because of the stolen Biometals and found Model W, but you attacked us.”

Ashe let out an irritated sigh, “Alright! We’re sorry, okay!?” Ashe took a deep breath to calm herself down, “So, why are you kids fighting Model W anyway?”

“You kids!?” Vent asked angrily, “I’ll have you know that we’re older than you!”

“Vent, stop it!” Aile sternly said before she pushed Vent away and let out a sigh, “Well, the same as you two, we were caught up in it before we knew it,” Aile’s expression turned into a sad one, “We lost many people fighting against the Mavericks, and Model Ws…”

“Revenge…” Grey concluded, but Aile shook her head.

“No, we just don’t want any more people to go through the same suffering as both of us did…” Aile turned to Vent, who gave her a nod, “Anyways, we’ve got the news that there are other Pseudoroid activity around here and we were about to check it out, but maybe it’s best that you two should go.”

“There should be one in the Biolab, the Waterfall Ruins, and the Mysterious Lab,” Vent added, “The two of us will be tracking on the stolen Biometals, so I’ll let you two handle the Pseudoroid activities. We’ll let the Legion know about the missions,” Vent turned to Aile, “Come on, let’s go back.”

Aile gave him a nod in reply before they walked away from the Hunters. Ashe let out a sly grin before taking a step closer to the two brown-haired Chosen Ones, “Or perhaps you’re just going on a dinner date this late that you’re leaving us with missions?”

The two stopped walking suddenly before Vent turned to Ashe angrily, “I-It’s none of your concern!”

Grey saw the anger on Vent’s eyes before turning to Ashe, who still had the same sly grin on her face, “Sorry, but denial means it’s true!”

“I’m not listening anymore!” Vent turned away out of embarrassment and anger before taking Aile’s hand and dragged her away, “Come on, let’s leave!”

Grey turned back to Ashe, who sighed in satisfaction, “Is that really necessary?”

Ashe nodded excitedly, “Yup, because teasing that Vent guy with Aile is interestingly fun!”


	14. The Stinky Lab

The next morning came, and the Hunters headed down towards the Biolab, which was located under the Hunter Camp. They went to the lab through the sewage in the Hunter Camp, which led them straight to the lab. As soon as they went deeper into the lab, they covered their noses due to the smell.

“Ugh… It really stinks down here…” Grey complained as he covered his nose.

“Wait, you Reploids can sense this smell?” Ashe asked Grey as she covered her nose, and got a nod as a reply from him, “Ugh… This is no ordinary sewage! Is this stinky smell coming from inside?”

 _“We Biometals don’t have a sense of smell…”_ Model A laughed in satisfaction, _“I guess I’m really lucky that I’m not either of you!”_

“Great. Just great!” Ashe complained without removing her hand from her nose, “Not just that we’re going to fight in this… this smelly place, but the smell is going to stick to my clothes!” Ashe turned to Grey angrily, “Why do you have to choose this kind of mission early in the morning!?”

“Hey, I thought that it was your idea to go to this place first!” Grey replied angrily, “I was just going with whatever it was you choose!”

“Then why do you have to go with the places I choose without question!?” Ashe asked back angrily.

“If I don’t then you’ll insist that I go with you!” Grey replied back angrily.

 _“Guys, enough!”_ Model A’s voice echoed in their heads, _“If you don’t like the smell then why don’t you just go ahead and finish the mission fast!?”_

The two Hunters glared at each other angrily before Grey gave up and let out a sigh, “Model A’s got a point. If we don’t hurry, then we’re gonna be stuck in this foul-smelling place longer!”

“Agreed,” Ashe shortly responded before she and Grey headed deeper into the lab.

While both of them bore the foul smell in the lab, they held on to both of their buster guns as they blasted through the Mechaniloids coming in their way. Grey released his charged shot at a Galleon holding a bazooka, destroying it before the shot got through its body and destroyed a few rat-like Mechaniloids dropping down from the ceiling.

Ashe followed behind Grey and used her Homing Shot to take down two drilling Mechaniloids which were digging their way out from the ground on her sides. Ashe kicked away a falling Galleon head as it fell right in front of her, knocking it into a pool of transparent substance in front of her. Ashe followed Grey and jumped into the substance, only to meet the same Galleon head with a liquid-like body.

Grey quickly disposed of the Galleon with his Homing Shot before he and Ashe moved on in the substance and climbed up. A buster shot out of nowhere hit Grey, who looked around to see the attacker. Ashe scanned the area around her and Grey with her Homing Shot gun, before releasing the shots to hit some invisible Mechaniloids.

As they got farther in the lab, the foul smell was slowly fading but was replaced by some pools of light blue viscous fluid all over the place. The two Hunters made a detour around the pools, avoiding stepping into any of them. Ashe took the lead and was about to go around another pool of viscous fluid, only to trip on a wet panel and fell into the pool.

“Ashe!” Grey approached the female Hunter as he saw her falling, “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay!” Ashe raised her arms, which were covered with the viscous fluid, “Now I have this strange goo all over my body!”

“Yeah, you’re fine alright,” Grey took one of Ashe’s hands and pulled her up, “Just jump into a pool of water and you’re back to being clean!”

“You’re kidding!” Ashe angrily spun around, splashing some of the fluid on her ponytailed hair towards Grey, “Come on, let’s go! The sooner we’re done here, the better!”

The two Hunters walked around the pools of fluid carefully before crossing to the other side of the room and reached a door. They walked through the door and noticed that they were standing on a floating ice block. They looked around the room and saw that there were huge Mechaniloids in the room, sleeping.

“Look at these Mechaniloids!” Ashe said as she and Grey saw the sleeping Mechaniloids.

“Are you surprised? These soldiers were all born here,” A voice was heard from the other side of the room, which came from a giant Pseudoroid with big jaws and teeth made of ice, “They’re to be used one day by the Mega Man King!”

 _“So Albert thought about all of this!?”_ Model A asked in disbelief.

“My name is Bifrost… Guardian of the sleeping soldiers,” The giant Pseudoroid introduced himself, “When the new world is born, they shall awaken and exterminate the old-world inhabitants. But for now, Model A Mega Men, I shall exterminate you! I shall crush every last one of your bones with my jaws!”

“The ones doing the extermination here will be us!” Grey said before he slid on the ice block towards Bifrost and landed a Homing Shot at his head.

Ashe morphed into Buckfire and shot out fire arrows at Bifrost, but the Pseudoroid had opened up his jaws and the arrows didn’t damage his jaws much. Bifrost slid closer to the Hunters with his jaws wide open, but the Hunters had jumped away and into the water before Bifrost could bite them along with the ice blocks.

Grey morphed into Queenbee and flew up, raining down Bifrost with fire shots from his stinger. Bifrost took the attack, but turned away to them while slamming his hard and thick mechanical tail at them. The Hunters were knocked against the wall under the door where they came from, but managed to get back to their feet.

Ashe fired more fire arrows at Bifrost, who took the attacks, but countered with his freezing breath as he froze Ashe into ice. As Bifrost was about to jump to squash her flat, Grey managed to melt down the ice trapping Ashe with his fire shots, letting Ashe to escape before Bifrost landed on top of her.

Bifrost opened up his jaws wide, sending out his ice teeth towards the Hunters as if they were missiles. Ashe melted down the ice teeth before they could hit her, but Grey was hit by one of them as he was trying to fly up and fire more shots at Bifrost. Bifrost walked closer to them slowly before slamming his jaws close, but not with any of the Hunters between the jaws.

Ashe and Grey morphed back into their Model A forms, and Grey followed up with his Giga Crush attack as Bifrost was about to send a spinning spiked wheel at them. The spiked wheel was destroyed by the rapid shots coming from Grey’s buster guns, and Ashe finished off the Pseudoroid with her Homing Shot, hitting his head.

“Am I the one being exterminated!? Is it you who shall bring about the new world and not we!? It is you after all…” Bifrost let out a pained yell before his body glowed and exploded, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy.

With the room cleared from the giant Pseudoroid, Ashe stretched her arms and saw that her body was no longer covered with the fluid from earlier, “Hey, that strange goo is gone! Maybe you’re right about going into the water to clean up!”

“Huh? Really?” Grey asked in disbelief, “I was joking that time.”

“You’re calling common sense as ‘jokes’,” Ashe laughed before she walked past him, “I guess you need to learn a lot about living, huh?”

“I only agree with the second part of your comment,” Grey spoke up, making Ashe stop walking and turned around to face him, “You did think my joke as a real joke, didn’t you?”

Ashe turned away from Grey, “Nah, you’re just imagining things…”

Grey let out a sigh before following her out of the room, _‘She’s never going to admit it. Ever.’_

As the two Hunters stepped into the next room, they spotted a familiar machine standing in front of them in the small room, “Hey, isn’t that a transerver?”

Grey approached the machine to take a closer look before nodding in agreement, “Yeah, but…” Grey tried kicking the machine a few times, but the machine wasn’t responding, “I don’t think it’s working…”

“Yeah… I wonder why…” Ashe turned to Grey, “Let’s just check this thing again later. Let’s head to the next place!”

“Alright, to the Waterfall Ruins it is!”


	15. Ruins in the Waterfall

Ashe and Grey had teleported themselves back to the Hunter Camp before they headed out towards the Waterfall Ruins through the camp. As soon as they entered the area, the sound of waterfall could be heard from far away. A red gateway made of wood was not too far ahead of them, along with two short pillars on the left and right sides on the gateway. Some ropes were hanging on the top of the red gateway, with their lengths mostly differ from each other.

 _“It’s me, Mikhail,”_ Mikhail’s voice was heard from the Hunters’ communicators, _“About the information we found on you in the Legion’s database… It appears that someone hacked in from the outside and erased them.”_

“It’s got to be Albert,” Model responded confidently.

 _“We did all we could to pinpoint the location of the hacker, but the network response is slow in the area you are in. Can you see a large computer facility in that area?”_ Mikhail asked and the two Hunters looked around the area around them, which only had damp rocks and a wooden gateway.

“Computer facility?” Grey asked, “No, we can’t see anything from here.”

 _“I’m afraid we can’t do anything else,”_ Mikhail let out a sigh, _“Now, it’s up to you. If you can find the computer used to do the hacking, there may still be some data on it. The missing data on you is one of the only clues there are left to track down Albert.”_

“The computer to hack our data… Okay, we’ll look for any suspicious places,” Ashe replied before she ended the communication.

Ashe and Grey went towards the gateway, only to be blocked by two almost identical twin Pseudoroids standing on the pillars. They both had purple armor with three exhaust pipes on their backs, with one of them bigger to resemble a tail. The big mouth of one of the Pseudoroids was wide open and he had big ears. The other Pseudoroid had his big mouth closed and a horn was on his head.

“Wait right there! I don’t care who you are. But I can’t allow you to continue any further!” The Pseudoroid with big ears said, while the one with the horn just grunted.

“Pseudoroids…” Grey stated as he and Ashe saw the twin Pseudoroids in front of them, “Are you in league with Albert?”

“That’s right! I am Argoyle!” The Pseudoroid with big ears, Argoyle, replied before turning to his twin, “And he’s my other half, Ugoyle! We will defend this place with our lives!”

 _“If that’s the case, then the computer used for hacking must be here!”_ Model A concluded.

“Do you think you can break through our defenses?” Argoyle asked the Hunters, while Ugoyle just grunted, “Let me show you the way to the netherworld, Model A Mega Men!”

“There’s no need for that!” Ashe said as she and Grey pulled out their buster guns, “We’ll beat you two here!”

Ashe and Grey stood between the two pillars, watching the twin Pseudoroids’ movements. Argoyle and Ugoyle jumped off the pillars they were on before dashing towards the Hunters with their skates. The Hunters didn’t have the time to dodge as the twin Pseudoroids were coming at them fast and were tackled away.

As the Hunters were recovering from the attack, the twin Pseudoroids had made a U-turn and headed back towards them. The twin Pseudoroids suddenly stopped as they reached their pillars, giving Ashe the chance to get her buster guns ready to release her Giga Crush attack and hit both of the twin Pseudoroids.

The twin Pseudoroids weren’t bothered by the attack and Argoyle countered the attack to throw a spiked rock bomb at Ugoyle, going through the Hunters. Ugoyle kicked the bomb back, activating it, and launched it towards the Hunters. The Hunters didn’t expect the attack, but Grey was fast enough to push Ashe out of the way before jumping away himself.

Grey landed safely on his back and let the twin Pseudoroids pass by the spot where they used to be a few seconds before, getting his buster guns ready. The twin Pseudoroids made a U-turn and headed back to their pillars as Grey released his Giga Crush attack to hit both of the twin Pseudoroids.

The twin Pseudoroids stood still on their pillars even after taking the rapid shots from Grey before light purple aura engulfed their bodies. The twin Pseudoroids jumped to the top of the gateway and slowly hovered down while passing their rock bomb back and forth. Just as they reached their pillars’ level, the twin Pseudoroids moved away and the bomb exploded, sending out energy blasts around the area.

Once the explosion died down, the twin Pseudoroids dashed back and stopped next to their pillars. Ashe released another Giga Crush attack, while Grey moved out of the twins’ paths with his Homing Shot gun ready. As the twin Pseudoroids were dashing towards the opposite pillars, Grey released the shots from his gun, hitting both twin Pseudoroids and knocked them down from their pillars.

“You! Me! We’re broken!” Argoyle said in pain.

“… No…” Ugoyle shortly added.

“You managed to win this battle, but you won’t survive this war!” Argoyle said before he and Ugoyle yelled in pain as their bodies glowed and exploded, leaving Argoyle’s data for the Hunters to copy.

 _“To let Pseudoroids stand in guard… Albert must not want other people to see what’s in here!”_ Model A concluded, getting a nod from the two Hunters.

Ashe stood proudly, “Never underestimate the skills of a first class Hunter!”

“Yeah, yeah, now let’s go!” Grey turned to the area behind the gateway, “The computer must be this way!”

Ashe and Grey continued on through the ruins’ gateway and through a cave, which led to a damp area with small waterfalls coming down from the ceilings on the sides of the cave. A Mechaniloid with the same height of them blocked the Hunters’ way and detected the Hunters in front of it as its stomach opened up to reveal a charging cannon.

Ashe and Grey dodged the shot from the cannon before Grey’s charged shot destroyed the Mechaniloid. A hole on the wall with a small waterfall coming from above the hole was behind the Mechaniloid and led the Hunters outside where they were greeted by a big waterfall along with a small lake under the waterfall.

Ashe approached the waterfall in front of them, “Wow… I wonder if there’s anything behind this waterfall…”

“There’s one way to find out,” Grey turned to Ashe, who paused for a moment before nodding in agreement.

The two Hunters jumped through the waterfall, seeing the land a bit farther in front of them before they fell into the small lake below. The two swam to the land, which was filled with damp rocks and more Mechaniloids. The Hunters pulled out their buster guns before they walked through the damp rocks while destroying the Mechaniloids in their way.

The Hunters walked through the area filled with the remains of the Mechaniloid they had destroyed and reached a door leading into a small lab. Just as the Hunters were about to go through the door, the sound of glass breaking followed by the sound of an explosion was heard.

“What was that!?” Grey asked in surprise.

 _“I think it sounded like something exploded,”_ Model A replied, feeling clueless.

Ashe turned to Grey with a serious look on her face, “Come on, that sound came from the inside.”

The Hunters went through the door, finding a small room littered with cables and some broken glass. Pandora was hovering behind Prometheus as he had the blade of his scythe planted on a broken computer. The two Reploids noticed the incoming Hunters and turned to them, with Prometheus removing his scythe from the monitor beforehand.

“The computer!” Ashe looked in surprise at the broken computer before turning to the two Reploids angrily, “Were you the ones who destroyed this computer!?”

Prometheus let out an evil smile, “That’s right! We’ve entered the final stage of the plan… We don’t need to hack anymore. But we couldn’t just let you go snooping around in there looking for information about yourselves either. And we can’t let you, who beat 5 Mega Men just retire.”

“What!?” Ashe and Grey said in unison.

“The reason we’ve kept you alive is all part of the plan. Soon it will all be over. The destiny of destruction,” Pandora replied softly.

Prometheus suddenly laughed before turning to the Hunters, “Albert, as well as his stupid game are about to be over! As Albert meets his demise!”

“The end of Albert!?” Grey asked in confusion, “What do you mean!? What are you going to do!?”

“I’ll tell you when it’s all over… Perhaps as you two are dying…” Prometheus let out an evil laugh before he and Pandora teleported away.

“Oh no…” Ashe approached the broken computer sadly, “The computer…” Ashe took out a data disk from the broken computer and stared at it before letting a sad sigh, “This data disk is the only thing left about us…”

 _“Don’t feel so bad,”_ Mikhail’s comforting words were heard from the Hunters’ communicators, _“Even without data, you two are very real and you two exist in this world. The proof is in the fact that they went to so much trouble to keep you from seeing the data. Let’s investigate the data we do have on our own. Send it together with your mission report.”_

Grey ended the connection and let out a disappointed sigh, “Come on, let’s continue with our next mission.

Ashe nodded in reply, “The next Pseudoroid activity is detected in the Mysterious Lab.”


	16. Memories and Mysteries

Ashe and Grey reported in their mission and sent the data disk to the Legion through the transerver. Once they were done reporting in, the two teleported themselves to a red bridge right in front of a building. The light of the moon shone on the two Hunters as it was already nighttime and the sound of waterfall could be heard clearly in the background. Grey looked around and recognized the red bridge, which was mostly broken, and looked back to the building in front of them.

“I think… I’ve been here before… This is the building where I first woke up in,” Grey spoke up, getting Ashe’s attention before he turned away and looked at the building on the other side of the building, “But I don’t recall being on this side before…”

 _“If this is where you received your Mega Man preparation, Grey, there may be a clue about Albert’s plan. Would you two have a look?”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from the Hunters’ communicators.

“Alright, we’ll see what we can find out here,” Ashe replied before cutting off the connection.

The Hunters went into the building, only to be surrounded by Mechaniloids. Grey blasted away the bladed Galleons as they charged at them, preventing the Galleons from landing any hits on them. Ashe released her reflect laser at a bouncing Mechaniloid before it bounced off and destroyed a crawling hermit crab Mechaniloid above it.

The two Hunters moved farther into the lab slowly as they slowly reduced the number of Mechaniloids around them. Ashe used her Homing Shot gun to lock on some flying Mechaniloids before releasing her shots, destroying them. More Mechaniloids came, but Grey managed to finish them off with his Giga Crush attack. With the Mechaniloids around them gone, the Hunters lowered their guns as they were panting out of tiredness.

Grey soon recovered from his tiredness and looked around at the mountain of Mechaniloid remains he and Ashe had created, “There are many Mechaniloids in this place… I wonder what’s going on…”

“I think there’s something here that we shouldn’t see,” Ashe said as she recovered from her tiredness and smiled, “But whatever it is, we’re not getting out of here without seeing it! Maybe we can get some extra payment if we get to find out what it is!”

Grey let out a sigh as he watched Ashe running ahead of him, “She’s always the same money-hungry Ashe, even in serious situations!”

 _“That’s Ashe for you, I guess,”_ Model A’s laughing was heard in Grey’s head.

“Huh?” Grey noticed the Biometal’s voice in his head, “Model A, I thought that you’re with Ashe.”

 _“I was going to go with her, but I guess it won’t hurt if I hang out with you sometimes,”_ Model A replied before letting out a sigh, _“You said that you’ve been here, right?”_

“Yeah,” Grey replied as he continued walking to the direction where Ashe had gone, “But I haven’t been in this building before. I only recall waking up in a room in the previous building, and I don’t remember anything happened before I woke up.”

 _“I see…”_ There was a long pause between the two as Grey walked to follow Ashe, who was already far ahead of him.

“Model A, when are you planning to tell us everything you know about us?” Grey suddenly asked, but the Biometal kept silent, “Model A? Are you there?”

 _“Well…”_ Model A spoke up hesitantly, _“I’m not sure when to tell you guys, but I don’t think you’re going to believe it if I tell you… Maybe I’ll wait for the best time to come before I can tell you, sorry…”_

“It’s… alright, I guess…” Grey let out a disappointed sigh before stopping in front of a door, “A door… I guess Ashe went through here…” Grey went through the door and saw Ashe standing in front of a computer, which was sitting in front of a capsule.

“Grey,” Ashe turned to her fellow Hunter and motioned him to come, to which he responded as he walked to her side, “Check this out. There’s another one over there another capsule too,” Ashe pointed at the computer and capsule on the other side of the room.

“Huh? What’s this?” Grey noticed the words on the panel of the computer before turning to Ashe, “Ashe, try checking the panel!”

“The panel?” Ashe turned her head away from the capsule and towards the panel.

_“DAN-001 ‘PROMETHEUS’ TIME REMAINING BEFORE SHUTDOWN FOR RECALIBRATION 246924 SECONDS.”_

“This is…” Ashe turned back to the capsule in surprise, “This is Prometheus’ capsule!?”

Grey turned to Ashe, who was surprised as she and Grey had found Prometheus’ capsule before turning back to the panel in front of him, “If that capsule is Prometheus’, then this other one should be…”

_“DAN-002 ‘PANDORA’ TIME REMAINING BEFORE SHUTDOWN FOR RECALIBRATION 246939 SECONDS.”_

“I knew it…” Grey turned to Ashe, who had walked over to him, “These are Prometheus’ and Pandora’s capsules…” Grey lowered his head, “They were made here, just like I did…”

 _“Maybe they’re what the data meant by ‘Reploid siblings’. I bet the first two Mega Men Albert made were Prometheus and Pandora,”_ Model A concluded, shocking the Hunters even more.

 _“There’s no doubt about it,”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from the Hunters’ communicators suddenly, _“These capsules are the chains that bound them. So that they wouldn’t go against Albert’s plan.”_

“Chains?” The two Hunters asked in confusion.

 _“The counters on the panels are probably Prometheus’ and Pandora’s lives. They’re set pretty short. They’re made so that they’ll die if they don’t go back into the capsules for maintenance at regular intervals,”_ Thomas explained through the communicators, _“Anyway, it looks like this building goes further in. There may be something left. Keep looking.”_

Ashe and Grey went through the door on the other side of the room, finding themselves inside a small room with pipes in it. A hole was on the ceiling of the room right above them, and a yellow hedgehog-like Pseudoroid was standing in front of them.

“Hey, hey, that’s as far as you go! Nobody gets past this point! I’m just following Mr. Albert’s orders,” The Pseudoroid said as she walked over to the Hunters.

Ashe let out a yawn while motioning her hand to shoo the Pseudoroid away, “Yeah, whatever. Now out of our way!”

“Hey, hey! Do you think you can just ignore me, Hedgeshock!?” The Pseudoroid, Hedgeshock, asked angrily, “You’ve got to face the penalty! A shocking penalty! Mr. Albert’s orders are absolute!”

Hedgeshock fired a few thunder bullets from her plug-like hands towards the Hunters, who climbed on to the pipes to dodge. Grey released a shot from his Homing Shot gun, hitting Hedgeshock just she was about curl into a spiked ball. Hedgeshock was knocked back by the attack a bit, but managed to curl back into a ball but without the spikes.

Ashe dropped down in front of the hedgehog-like Pseudoroid and fired her reflect laser, but missed as she had rolled out of the way. Water poured down into the room from the hole in the ceiling, filling up two thirds of the room. Hedgeshock stayed on the ground and called out rat Mechaniloids from the hole on the ceiling.

Ashe and Grey both dropped into the water, avoiding the rat Mechaniloids as they exploded above them. Hedgeshock sent out a few thunder balls around her, hitting the two Hunters before Grey countered with his charged shot. Hedgeshock was thrown back, and Ashe followed up with her reflect laser to knock her to the ground.

The water in the room was drained out through the hole on the ground in the middle of the room and the Hunters climbed up the pipes as Hedgeshock got up to her feet. She curled into a ball and rolled towards the wall in front of her with her spikes pulled in and hit the wall, bouncing her to land on a pipe. Hedgeshock released more thunder balls around her, but the Hunters dodged the thunder balls before jumping down to the Pseudoroid’s level.

Ashe released her reflect laser while Grey released his charged shot and both attacks hit Hedgeshock, knocking her off the pipe. Grey jumped down and released a small charged shot at the Pseudoroid, before Ashe finished her off with her Homing Shot and knocked the Pseudoroid away near the hole on the ground.

“Hey, hey! That kind of strength… is… cheating! It’s just like… Mr. Albert’s strength!” Hedgeshock let out a pained yell before her body glowed and exploded, leaving her data for Ashe and Grey to copy. The two Hunters continued on by going through the door in the room, leading to a big room with a lone capsule in the middle of the room.

“Is this capsule the only one here?” Grey asked before he and Ashe approached the nearby computer and checked the panel.

_“DAN-000 ‘PROTOTYPE’ FINAL VERSION COMPLETE. START FINAL PHASE.”_

“What does ‘Prototype’ mean?” Ashe turned to Grey, who shrugged in reply, “I bet this too is part of Albert’s plan…”

 _“Hey, there a data disk here!”_ Model A said as he noticed the disk on top of the computer before Grey picked it up.

 _“Very good, but all you managed to find is an empty capsule and some incomplete data?”_ Thomas asked from the Hunters’ communicators, _“There might be some Mega Men that we don’t know about. We’ll analyze the data here and see what we can find. Send it with your mission report.”_

“Alright,” Grey said before he ended the connection and turned to Ashe, “Let’s send this to the Legion and head back to the camp. We’ve been on missions since morning.”

Ashe nodded in agreement, “Yeah, that sounds good,” Ashe reached for her ponytailed hair, “I still need to wash my hair after that incident with that strange goo thing…”


	17. Attack! Storm Albert’s Hideout!

The next morning came, and the Hunters were woken up early due to the call from the Sage Trinity’s Master Thomas. Ashe sat up on her bed, her eyes still tired and reached for her communicator while Grey did the same as well after letting out a tired yawn.

 _“It’s Thomas,”_ Thomas’ voice was heard from the Hunters’ communicators, _“I’m sorry for contacting you this early, but we’ve succeeded in analyzing a file in the data you found. This is the initialization key data for a special transerver. It contains transport coordinate data of some kind. We were able to completely recover it using the data you sent.”_

“A special transerver…?” Grey asked tiredly before letting out another tired yawn.

 _“Do you remember ever seeing a transerver that hadn’t been initialized?”_ Thomas asked, making the two Hunters turn to each other as they were thinking, _“Albert must be hiding in the back of the area that transerver leads to. I will activate the transerver with the initialization key from here,”_ Thomas ended the communication, leaving the Hunters to think.

“I think we’ve seen that kind transerver before…” Ashe said before she finally remembered and pointed at Grey, who was doing the same to her.

“The Biolab!” The two said in unison before the both of them got ready and headed for the transerver to teleport themselves to the Biolab.

The two Hunters headed towards the room where the said transerver was and got on it, _“… … … … … INITIALIZATION KEY VERIFIED. COORDINATE DATA VERIFIED. SWITCHING TO ACTIVE MODE.”_ The transerver let out some whirring sound as it was activated.

 _“Yes! It worked! I suspect Albert’s hideout will be at that transerver destination. Let’s go storm Albert’s hideout!”_ Model A said in excitement, getting a nod from the Hunters.

The two Hunters teleported themselves away from the lab and arrived in a small room with some water in it. Some cables and pipes were on the wall of the room, which were made of rocks. As the two Hunters were about to exit the room, they stopped for a moment as Model A spoke up in their heads.

 _“Ashe, Grey, do you feel it?”_ Model A asked, getting nods from the two Hunters.

“I sense something just up ahead,” Ashe said, getting a nod from Grey.

“Yeah, it must be Model W!” Grey said before turning to Ashe, “Come on, let’s go and stop Albert’s plan!”

Ashe nodded in reply before the both of them headed out of the room. The two Hunters pulled out their buster guns as soon as Mechaniloids surrounded them, blasting them out of their way before they jumped down into the water and headed deeper into the area, which was filled with undersea volcanoes.

Grey morphed into Aile while Ashe morphed into Vent and the two got their sabers ready as the volcanoes started erupting. They jumped over hot rocks before doing rolling slashes on the swimming shrimp Mechniloids around them along with the rocks which had come out of the volcanoes.

The two Hunters dashed through the area while slashing through the Mechaniloids and rolling volcano rocks in their way before they entered a dry lab-like building. They both took the left path as soon as it split into two branches, coming across more Mechaniloids on their way. Ashe went on ahead with her saber on her side while Grey followed her slowly while shooting the remaining Mechaniloids away with his buster.

The Hunters stopped in front of a door and morphed back into their Model A forms and turned around to see the remains of the Mechaniloids they had destroyed. Ashe and Grey turned back to the door before turning to each other and nodded. The two Hunters went through the door, finding themselves in a big room full of Model Ws.

“No…” Grey said in disbelief, “All of these are Model Ws!?”

A familiar laughter was heard in the room and the Hunters turned to the direction where it came from to see Albert on the opposite side of the room, “Are you surprised, Ashe and Grey?”

“Albert! I knew it’s you!” Ashe glared at the former Sage Trinity member.

“Do you have any idea how much time I’ve invested in this plan? Did you think you could foil my plan by destroying one or two of my Model Ws?” The evil smile on Albert’s face turned into an angry expression, “Not a chance.”

Prometheus teleported into the room right in front of Albert and Prometheus pointed his scythe at Albert, “We’ll see about that.”

“Prometheus! Pandora!” Grey recognized the Reploid siblings.

“So this is where he’s been keeping the recovered Model Ws,” Prometheus turned to look at the Model Ws hanging in the room before turning to the Hunters with an evil smile, “I never thought that you would find this place for us.”

“Thank you… Model A Mega Men…” Pandora replied softly.

“How many centuries has it been since we last met like this, Master Albert?” Prometheus asked as he and Pandora turned to the surprised Albert with a wicked smile, “You look even more ridiculous in person than you do on that monitor!”

Albert growled angrily, “What do you think you’re doing!?”

“This,” Prometheus got his scythe ready, “is what we’re doing,” Prometheus swung his scythe, sending a sonic boom at Albert, who took the attack head on before he yelled out in pain and collapsed with his body almost torn into two pieces as Prometheus watched with an evil laugh, “To be defeated by the very first Mega Man you ever made!” Prometheus dug the bladeless end of his scythe into Albert’s body, “How fitting, for the scum that you are!”

“What’s going on here!?” Model A asked in confusion.

Prometheus pulled out his scythe from Albert’s body and turned back to the Hunters along with Pandora, “You were being used by us all along. From the day we first awoke, we were Mega Men destined to fight each other… To further Albert’s insane plan to create the ultimate Mega Man.”

“So we decided… to take revenge on Albert…” Pandora added.

“Revenge!?” Ashe and Grey said in disbelief.

“We found many Mega Men and brought them into this fight. We knew that if we were successful, Albert would show up. And then you two tracked him down, allowing us to exact our revenge,” Prometheus’ evil smile came back to his face.

 _“I didn’t think this is how the game would end…”_ Model A commented in disbelief.

Prometheus let out a laugh, “What are you talking about…? It’s not over yet…!” Prometheus’ smile turned into a wicked one, “We’re still here. The garbage left behind by that scum!”

“We can’t get our old bodies back… We can’t change our destiny… So we’ll hasten the destiny of destruction…” Pandora added once more before getting her staff ready.

“We will destroy all that Albert made. That is our revenge!” Prometheus spread out his arms wide at the Model Ws before turning back to the Hunters with his scythe ready, “So let’s have some fun, why don’t we? And go out with a bang!”

The Reploid siblings disappeared from the Hunters’ sight suddenly, before Pandora suddenly appeared far above them on the opposite side of the room while sitting on her electricity-charged staff. Pandora flew down with her staff in a zigzag pattern, turning the Hunters’ attention away Prometheus, who had dropped down behind the Hunters and swung his scythe.

Ashe and Grey released their reflect laser and charged shot at Pandora, but got slashed by Prometheus’ sonic boom and were knocked away once he charged at them and jumped to do a spinning slash with his scythe. Pandora appeared a bit above the ground and between the two Hunters along with some electric spears rotating around her.

Two of the electric spears spun towards Ashe and Grey, who managed to dodge the attack by jumping, before the spears went back to rotating her. The other two spears started spinning towards the Hunters once more, but they dashed away to the sides before the spears went back to rotating around her for a moment before she disappeared along with the spears.

Prometheus appeared above the two Hunters, and took the incoming Homing Shots from the Hunters before summoning a few fire pillars around him. The fire pillars spun around him in a circle, which got bigger and bigger until it reached the edge of the room, but the Hunters took the small gaps between the pillars to slip into Prometheus’ area and shot him with more Homing Shots.

Prometheus disappeared, and was replaced by Pandora along with her spears. The Hunters managed to land their reflect laser and charged shot before the electric spears could protect her. The Hunters dodged Pandora’s attack before she disappeared, once again replaced by Prometheus as he summoned two giant fire pillars on his left and right side before sending it at the Hunters.

Ashe and Grey took the hit directly, which damaged them badly, before Prometheus disappeared once more and replaced by Pandora and her rotating electric spears. Ashe was fast enough to recover and landed a Homing Shot on Pandora before the spears could start protecting the female Reploid. Once the Hunters dodged the spinning spears, Pandora disappeared and was replaced by Prometheus.

Prometheus summoned two more giant fire pillars, sending them at the two Hunters. Ashe and Grey held their guns tightly before releasing their Giga Crush attacks with Ashe’s shots hitting the fire pillars to stop them from moving and Grey’s shots hitting Prometheus before he disappeared once more and was replaced by Pandora.

Pandora flew down in a zigzag pattern while sitting on her electric-charged staff before Prometheus suddenly appeared on the other side of the room with his scythe ready. Grey quickly released his charged shot at Prometheus, who blocked the attack with his scythe, before he jumped over him and let Ashe knock Pandora away with her reflect laser.

The two disappeared for a moment before Pandora reappeared in the middle of the room and detached her two head pieces. The two head pieces sent out lines of thunder balls at the Hunters, who barely dodged the attack, before they started shooting out small ice spikes around. Grey dodged the incoming ice spikes and landed a charged shot on Pandora, before Ashe finished off the battle with her reflect laser.

“That’s enough! This fighting is senseless!” Ashe told the Reploid siblings, who drew back their weapons.

“That’s right… Even you can see that this fight is pointless!” Prometheus agreed with a nod, but his face wasn’t filled with satisfaction.

“Mavericks terrorize humans, and in turn Model Ws absorb that anguish,” Pandora started explaining softly, “Albert used Legion as a front to go about selecting Chosen Ones. A world where Mega Men are created to destroy each other all for Albert’s satisfaction.”

“It was all a farce!” Prometheus yelled angrily, “Albert prepared everything in this world according to his own plan. He said Mega Men are the natural evolution of Man!?” Prometheus slammed his foot down in anger, “Don’t make me laugh! What an epic sham! I’m going to demolish this whole wretched world!”

Purple energy balls suddenly came out of the Reploid siblings’ bodies before they were slowly being absorbed by the Model Ws in the room. Prometheus and Pandora yelled out in pain as more and more purple energy balls came out from their bodies and were absorbed by the Model Ws. The siblings finally collapsed and the Model Ws stopped absorbing the energy as they had all started humming.

“Oh no…!” Ashe turned to the Model Ws worriedly and Grey did as well, “All the Model Ws are awake!”

A red-haired man, who was almost identical to Albert with the exception that he had a green monocle over his right eye, teleported in front on the siblings and turned to the Hunters, “Prometheus… Pandora… Your centuries of anger… suffering… hate… and insanity along with your battles against other Mega Men have given me the data I need!”

Grey’s eyes grew wide as he heard the man talking, “That voice… No way… Master Albert!”

 _“But I thought that Prometheus…”_ Model A said in confusion, _“Then, who was it that Prometheus defeated!?”_

“That was a decoy. A dummy body that worked as one of the Sage Trinity in my stead. I am DAN-000 the ‘Original’… This me is the genuine article, the real Master Albert!” The man, Albert, looked at the surprised Hunters as the ground started shaking and the ceiling started falling apart, “Just as I planned! Soon all of the Model Ws will begin to merge! I will become the ultimate Mega Man and the plan will be complete!”

More rocks coming from the ceiling started falling on the Hunters, _“This place won’t last long! We need to hurry and get out of here!”_ Model A warned, but the Hunters hesitated and turned to the Reploid siblings behind Albert.

“B-But…” Ashe protested, “Prometheus…”

“And Pandora too…” Grey protested as well while looking at the collapsed Prometheus and Pandora.

 _“What are you saying!?”_ Model A asked angrily, _“We can’t carry both of them! If you two don’t make it, who’s going to deal with Albert!?”_

The Hunters took one last look at the collapsed Reploids before turning away while hearing the laughing voice of Albert, dashing away to safety, _‘Prometheus… Pandora… We’re sorry…’_


	18. Ouroboros the Ultimate Biometal

Ashe and Grey were teleported away back to the Hunter Camp, right inside the building where the transerver was. The two Hunters immediately went out of the building once they arrived and saw that one of the Hunters in the camp, Billy, was standing outside the building. Billy was looking up at the sky, as if seeing something which shouldn’t be airborne.

The ground started shaking violently as from the sea far away from them, a metal object appeared from the water and flew higher and higher. The metal had the shape of a giant ring with a golden snake head on it. Hundreds of flying Mechaniloids started gathering around the giant object, before some of them flew down to the ground.

 _“That’s all of the Model Ws merged together…”_ Model A told the two silver-haired Hunters as they looked up, _“Ouroboros…”_

“Albert must be inside!” Grey concluded, getting a nod from Ashe.

“It’s airborne, so we need to take an airship!” Ashe turned to Billy, “Hey, do you Hunters here have an airship for us to use?”

Billy shook his head, “No, Mavericks destroyed them all…”

 _“No way…”_ Model A said in disbelief, _“Is there nothing we can do?”_

“There is one way,” A familiar masculine voice was heard as the two brown-haired Guardians approached the Hunters.

“Vent!” Ashe recognized the male Chosen One before noticing his partner behind him and let out a sly smile, “And I see that you brought your girlfriend here too…”

The two brown-haired Chosen Ones blushed before Aile stepped forward in front of Vent, “I-It’s not the time for that…” Aile looked up at the Ouroboros, “So that’s the ultimate Biometal, Ouroboros…”

“So what’s the plan then?” Grey asked before turning to Vent as he saw that he had pointed his finger upwards and saw a pink airship approaching them, “W-What’s that!?”

Vent let out a smile, “She belongs to us and our crews.”

“She’s the Guardian Base!” Aile added, before the airship landed on the open field where the Hunters’ broken airships were being kept, “We can use the Guardian Base to board Ouroboros,” Vent and Aile turned to the Hunters with serious expressions on their faces, “We must take Albert down!”

“Wait!?” Vent and Aile turned around as three Hunters, with Billy being one of them, approached the group of four Chosen Ones, “If you’re going after the ringleader, then let us have some piece of action too!”

“But this isn’t that kind of bounty mission…!” Grey warned.

“Oh, yes it certainly is…” The group turned to the opposite side and saw the red-haired member of the Sage Trinity, “An official mission from the Legion HQ.”

“Master Thomas!” Grey noticed Thomas as he stopped in front of them with a smile on his face.

“How brave you all are,” Thomas continued, his smile not leaving his face, “You won’t be satisfied unless the mission was official. The Legion is having trouble supplying enough manpower to fight the Mavericks,” Thomas turned to Ashe, “Ashe…” Thomas then turned to Grey, “Grey… I’m putting you two in charge.”

“Alright, then!” Ashe turned back to the group along with Grey, “Everyone! Let’s show Albert who’s world this is!”

The Hunters cheered, while the two brown-haired Guardians merely nodded before Aile spoke up, “Let’s go, follow us to the base!”

Vent and Aile went on ahead with the five Hunters following behind them as they all headed towards the place where the Guardian base landed. The four Chosen Ones along with the three Hunters boarded the pink airship before the four Chosen Ones transformed into their Model ZX or Model A forms and the three Hunters had their guns well prepared.

Vent reached for the communicator on his ear, “We’re on board on the deck. Take us up to Ouroboros, Prairie!”

 _“Understood,”_ Prairie’s voice was heard from Vent’s communicator before the pink airship took off from the Hunter Camp.

The Guardian Base took off into the sky, and the Ouroboros slowly came into sight. Vent turned to the others, who were all set for the final battle as the Guardian Base was getting closer and closer towards the giant Biometal, “We’re almost there. Once we got on to Ouroboros, expect the Mavericks to strike us.”

“We’re counting on all of you to protect the Guardian Base!” Aile added, getting a determined reply from the Hunters.

The Guardian Base crashed on to Ouroboros before the two Guardians and Hunters got off from the deck area of the airship and jumped on to the gigantic Biometal. Mechaniloids started swarming around them, making them pull out their weapons. Vent pulled out his ZX saber, Aile pulled out her ZX buster, Ashe and Grey pulled out their buster guns, and the three Hunters pulled out their guns.

Vent sent out a sonic boom from his Rising Fang attack while Aile blasted a path leading towards the entrance to the Ouroboros before turning to the silver-haired Hunters, “Ashe! Grey! You two go on ahead! We’ll handle things here and catch up with you guys!”

“Thanks everyone!” Grey yelled before he and Ashe went into the Ouroboros.

Ashe suddenly stopped running as she noticed the gaps on their sides, “Hey, you should check that out!” Ashe pointed at the gaps beside the path they were walking on, “This so-called Biometal has the ‘bio’ feel in it."

“What do you mean?” Grey asked as he turned to the direction where Ashe pointed at, but still felt confused.

“Don’t you see that?” Ashe pointed at a piece of Model W, which was sticking out of a red object which was beating like a heart, “The Model W piece is inside something that’s actually living! Something that beats like a beating heart!”

“Hey, I guess you’re right!” Grey turned back to Ashe, “But whatever living thing that is, we have to destroy it. Come on!”

Ashe and Grey pulled out their buster guns as they went deeper and Mechaniloids started appearing in front of them. Grey dashed ahead of Ashe and released his charged shot at a cannon-like Mechaniloid in front of him, leaving Ashe to use her Homing Shot to destroy the other cannon Mechaniloid above it before moving on deeper into the area.

Grey, who had been ahead of the Hunters, stopped when he saw a wall made of red blocks in front of him, “What’s this?”

“Is that… a wall?” Ashe asked as she caught up to Grey, “But I see that it has soft textures…” Ashe approached the wall and punched it, only to have her fist stuck in it, “H-Hey! My hand’ stuck,” Ashe turned to Grey in panic, “Grey, do something!”

“I’ll try this then!” Grey released a charged shot at the wall, destroying it instantly as it released Ashe’s hand before the hole created by the shot slowly closing.

“The wall’s recovering…” Ashe pointed her buster gun at the wall, “I think we have to destroy it and get through it quickly enough before it could recover and trap us in.”

“Good plan,” Grey said before he charged his buster gun, “I’m ready!”

“GO!” The two released their reflect laser and charged shot, before making a mad dash through the recovering wall.

Ashe and Grey stopped once they got through and looked back at the wall, which had almost recovered completely, “I guess we made it in time.”

“Yeah,” Grey nodded in reply before turning around to the opposite side to see a door, “That door… I get the feeling that Albert must be behind that door…”

“Let’s go!” Ashe said before she and Grey started dashing towards the door.

Aeolus, in his Model H form, suddenly teleported in front of the Hunters and stopped them from approaching the door, “You’ve made a foolish choice… You should’ve stayed away…”

Thetis teleported in, standing behind the Hunters with an angry look on his face, “We’ve got some unfinished business to take care of! I’m not just going to let out waltz out of here!”

Atlas teleported in, standing beside Thetis with both of her buster guns ready, “This is as far as you go!”

Siarnaq teleported in behind Thetis and Atlas, “TACTICAL ADVANTAGE, FOUR TO ONE… COMMENCE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF TARGET!”

“What’s going on with you people!?” Ashe asked angrily as she looked at the Mega Men standing around her and Grey.

“Guys! Albert has been using all of you from the start!” Grey told the four, who were completely not shaken by his statement, “Why do you all insist on fighting!?”

“A mere trifling technicality…” Aeolus spoke up, “The winner out of all of us need only to defeat Albert to become king. Those are the rules that Albert himself laid down.”

Ashe let out an angry and annoyed growl, “Oh, you idiots!”

A charged shot landed between Aeolus and the Hunters before Aile jumped down to the same spot with her buster pointed at Aeolus, “Are you two okay?” Aile turned to see the nodding Hunters.

Vent jumped down as well, landing between the Hunters and the three other Mega Men, “You two go on ahead!” Vent pulled out his green ZX saber, “We’ll take care of things here!” Vent turned his head to Aile, “Now!”

Aile released another charged shot at Aeolus, who activated his jet wings to dodge and created an opening for the Hunters to dash away. Aeolus glared at the two Guardians, who weren’t shaken at all, before he landed back on the ground along with the other three Mega Men. Aile stepped forward, pointing her buster at the other Chosen Ones.

“I believe you have something we want,” Aile started charging her buster, “We want you to hand over your all of your Biometals!”

Meanwhile, Ashe and Grey had their buster guns ready in their hands before they went through a door which led them to a place which looked like the outside. A sea of colorful flowers were on their left and right sides, and the wind started blowing the flower petals around them. As the two Hunters walked ahead, they saw Albert sitting on his giant throne with a globe on it.

“Ashe, Grey, I thought that you two might come right about now…” Albert spoke up, still sitting on his throne, “Or should I say, I needed for you two to come. If only that you two hadn’t met Model A, you would have died already without knowing the truth.”

“What are you talking about!?” Ashe asked angrily, “What truth!?”

“What?” Albert looked down at the two in confusion, “Model A, you haven’t told them yet? You should be able to remember everything by now.”

 _“Don’t listen to him, you two!”_ Model A protested, _“Just waste him!”_

Albert rose from his throne and smiled at the two Hunters before turning to Ashe, “Ashe, my distant offspring… You are the descendant of the family I left before I became a part of Sage Trinity,” Albert turned to Grey, “Grey, the successor made in my image to be like a son… You are made as a spare Mega Man to take over this throne if anything ever happens to me.”

“What!?” The two Hunters asked in disbelief.

“The DNA of you two has many similarities to mine, so that you were able to Rock On with Model A,” Albert continued, “The Model A you have was a backup system that contains my entire plan…” Albert’s smile turned into an evil and satisfied one, “Model A, or should I say… Model Albert!”

 _“I hate that name!”_ Model A stated bluntly.

“Don’t say that,” Albert’s smile disappeared from his face, “Soon enough, that name and what it stands for will be gone,” Albert’s body started glowing along with his throne before they merged together to form a three-headed dragon, “By destroying my own descendant and the spare ultimate Mega Man with my own hands, I will become the only ‘me’!”

One of the three heads fired thunder beams at the ground in front of the Hunters, before black spheres were formed and some broken platforms where flung at the two. The Hunters dodged the attack before firing their reflect laser and charged shot at Albert’s body. The dragon head was pulled back before the head on the middle stretched out and dug its horn into the ground.

The horn cut through the ground and headed towards the Hunters, who jumped to opposite sides to dodge before firing another combo of reflect laser and charged shot. The last dragon head fired out some small fireballs at the ground around the Hunters, before they hit the ground and created big fire pillars to hit the Hunters who didn’t expect the attack.

The two Hunters fell, but Grey managed to land a charged shot at Albert’s body before he hit the ground, making the three heads of the dragon to separate from the body. As Ashe and Grey got back to their feet, they saw that the three dragon heads were floating above them before sending out multiple spark shots at them.

Ashe managed to dodge the attack and hit the body with her Homing Shot, but Grey took some of the hits and was knocked to the ground. The three dragon heads suddenly disappeared and two holes opened up in the field. One was a black hole, appearing in front of the dragon’s body, and the other one was a white hole appearing near the entrance door but a bit higher up.

Ashe got sucked into the black hole, sending her out from the white hole along with black flying objects which almost Grey. Grey got back to his feet, but felt that he was also being pulled in by the black hole. One of the black objects hit Grey on the back and sent him into the black hole before he was dropped out of the white hole on Ashe, who had been dropped down earlier than him, before the holes disappeared.

 Grey got off from Ashe and helped her up before they both charged their buster guns and ran towards the dragon’s body, ignoring the spark shots coming from the three dragon heads. Ashe and Grey endured the hits before releasing their reflect laser and charged shot in unison at the body, which had started smoking. The attacks hit the body, and the three dragon heads fell to the ground before they exploded.

“Did that… did that do it…?” Ashe and Grey asked in unison tiredly as they saw the dragon exploded.


	19. The Mega Man King

“Did that… did that do it…?” Ashe and Grey asked in unison tiredly as they saw the dragon exploded.

Some smokescreen covered the whole area, making the Hunters unable to see what was happening before the familiar silhouette of Albert was seen behind the smokescreen, “I can hear them, the anger, the bitterness, the sadness of the sacrifices to Model W,” The smokescreen disappeared, revealing Albert with his broken throne behind him.

“What!? No way…!” Grey looked at Albert in disbelief as he and Ashe saw that Albert was barely harmed by the explosion.

“Having consumed the souls of people throughout the world, the awakened Model W is the world’s consciousness itself,” Albert continued, ignoring the surprised Hunters as he looked up at the blue sky, “Model W desires destruction… It desires that the Earth conclude its own autobiography… So be it! Model W… Ultimate Mega Man! If at evolution’s extreme… there is destruction, it was destined to be that way.”

“That stuff is only in your head!” Ashe rejected angrily, “The power of Model W has taken control of you!”

“Hmph…” Albert glared down at Ashe, “By drowning in peace, by rejecting change, you made the choice for the destruction of the Earth. I am trying to create a new world. I want to bring new life into the world and protect its future.”

“Then that makes you think yourself as a god!” Albert’s glare turned to Grey before the light on Albert’s green monocle died down.

“I don’t _think_ I’m a god…” Albert’s cloak opened up to reveal a shadowy black body beneath it with a shadow-like hand coming out of the vest, “I _am_ a god!”

The shadow-like hand threw away the cloak, revealing Albert in a black shadow-like body. Albert flew up slowly before the blue sky broke up into pieces, turning the sky into the orange color of a sunset. Nine golden pieces of Model Ws flew towards him, and stopped around him with three on his right and left sides, two over his head, and the last one under his feet.

The black color of his body was slowly replaced the golden color of his armor, which had golden spiked shoes and golden gauntlets. A semi-transparent blue mask was on his face and his red hair came out from the back of his golden helmet. A green gem on his forehead lit up before two glowing yellow eyes were seen on the blue mask. A halo appeared above his head, along with a pair of green semi-transparent wings and a blade like tail under his feet.

“The world where you live in itself is defective. Before a new world can be made, this world must be reset. That’s where the ultimate power of Model W comes in. I have already decided the fate of the world as its god. The destiny of destruction cannot be changed!” Albert said as he looked down at the Hunters with his glowing yellow eyes.

Ashe shook her head, “No… We can change our destiny! We alone decide our fate!”

“There it is… that empty misery…” Albert growled angrily, “It disgusts me! That’s why I made Mega Men, to evolve! You, who couldn’t become a god… You’re not even Mega Men, you’re mere mortals!”

“Just because we’re mortals, it doesn’t mean that we have no right to change our own destiny!” Grey finally said before he and Ashe pulled out both of their buster guns.

Ashe and Grey aimed their guns and released their Homing Shots, hitting the Model Ws around Albert. Lock-on cursors appeared on the Hunters bodies, but they managed to jump out of the way before multiple shots hit them on the locked on spots and aimed their Homing Shots at the Model Ws once more, breaking the shield around Albert.

Two of the Model Ws flew away before Albert disappeared, and the missing two pieces of Model W came towards the Hunters, spinning and had longer blades on them. The Hunters flattened their bodies on the floor, letting the Model W blades pass by above them before scanning the area for Albert once more.

Albert reappeared in front of the Hunters with all the Model Ws around him present and the shield around him had regenerated. Ashe and Grey aimed their Homing Shots at the Model Ws once more, breaking the shield around him. Ashe released another Homing Shot, hitting Albert and knocked him down to the ground.

Albert disappeared from their sight, and two frozen dragons appeared to replace him. The first dragon hit the Hunters and knocked them away, letting the second dragon to smash them into the ground. The dragons disappeared, and Albert reappeared in front of the Hunters who had just got up to their feet.

Grey released his charged shot, but Albert wasn’t knocked back from his attack and instead smashed him along with Ashe with a sword made of smaller Model W pieces. The impact hit the ground instead as the Hunters ran separate ways, running around to get to Albert’s back before Ashe released her reflect laser.

Albert took the attack before slamming the ground with a stack of small pieces of Model W, making the Hunters lose their footing as they fell down and got hit by the flame towers sprouting out from the ground. Albert disappeared and reappeared with some Model Ws forming two circles on his left and right sides, firing out a light laser each at the Hunters.

Grey’s rapid regular shots managed to cancel one of the lasers, but Ashe’s shots weren’t fast enough as she got hit by one of the lasers. Albert disappeared and reappeared with his shield once more, leaving the Hunters to shoot more Homing Shots to take down his shield. With his shield down, Albert suddenly disappeared and two cyclones surrounded the Hunters, pulling them in.

Ashe and Grey managed to avoid being pulled in, but Grey got hit by some smaller cyclones sent towards the Hunters. Albert reappeared without his shield, locking on more cursors on their bodies before releasing some shots at the locked on spots. The Hunters dodged the shots before Grey released a Homing Shot at Albert while Ashe charged her buster gun.

The charged shot knocked Albert to the ground, giving Ashe the chance to release her reflect laser. Albert took the attack before disappearing and summoned a stack of small Model Ws to slam the ground, immobilizing the Hunters on the ground. Fire towers started sprouting out from the ground, but Grey was lucky enough not to get hit while Ashe took the hit directly and knocked her towards Grey’s feet.

“Ashe! Are you okay!?” Grey asked worriedly before helping Ashe sit up.

“I’m fine, I guess…” Ashe replied weakly before getting up, “I think Albert is getting weaker by now…”

“I know…” Grey nodded and saw Albert reappear in front of them without his shield, “I’m ready for the last blow.”

Just as Albert was about to slam a sword made of Model Ws, Ashe released her reflect laser and knocked the sword, making it crumble above his head as the remains of the Model Ws rained down on him. Grey followed up with a charged shot, knocking him to the ground before he charged another shot. As Albert was getting up to his feet, the Hunters released their reflect laser and charged shot, ending the battle as Albert’s armor started cracking and the blue mask had broken.

“Yeah, you’re right, I am Defective. I’m just a person named Grey. You couldn’t even change the destiny of a regular boy like me,” Grey said as he approached the defeated man on the ground.

“You’re no Mega Man king… You’re no god…” Ashe said as she approached Albert and stopped next to Grey, “You were gonna destroy the world… You were gonna end the story… You’re not the one to make that decision! This is our lives, our stories, and our destiny!”

Albert weakly turned to Grey, “Is that… what the other me would say…?” Albert weakly turned to Ashe and let out a laugh, “You’re most definitely my creations…” Albert curled his hands into fists, “You two… have surpassed me… My research… wasn’t wrong after all…” Albert looked up at the two Hunters with an evil smile, “You two can have your peace… and rot in it!”

Albert’s body glowed for a moment before exploding, making the Ouroboros lose its control and started falling down. The Hunters stood still, panting, before they were both transformed back into their human and Reploid forms. The two Hunters collapsed, leaving Model A to get out from the Hunters’ hands and hovered above them.

 _“Ashe! Grey!”_ Model A called out, but got no response from the two Hunters, _“Get a hold of yourselves! Hey!”_

Meanwhile, Vent and Aile were still fighting the other four Mega Men in their ZX forms. Their armor had taken some damage from the fight, and the two Guardians were panting heavily while clutching tightly to their weapons.

 _“Vent! Aile!”_ Model X’s voice echoed in the two’s heads, _“The situation is getting more dangerous! We have to go and help Ashe and Grey!”_

“I know…” Vent replied as he looked at the four Mega Men standing in front of him and Aile, “But four against two isn’t gonna be easy…”

The two’s armor transformed into blue as the red Biometal hovered away from them, _“You two go on ahead. I’ll hold them off for you.”_

“What are you talking about!?” Aile protested, “Don’t be crazy, Model Z!”

 _“Go,”_ Model Z replied shortly without turning towards the two Guardians, _“Today isn’t the time for me to meet my maker.”_

Vent and Aile paused for a moment before Vent nodded and turned away, “Alright, we’ll hold on to your word.”

Vent and Aile dashed away, heading through the door leading outside to see the collapsed Hunters and Model A, _“Vent! Aile! You’ve got to help Ashe and Grey!”_

“Don’t worry, Model A,” Aile turned to Vent, “Vent, can you carry both of them with you?”

“Huh? Why me?” Vent asked, getting a glare from Aile.

“There’s no time to argue with that, Vent. You’re the strongest out of the two of us,” Aile told Vent before reaching for the communicator on her ear, “Prairie, can you hear me?”

 _“Aile! This is bad!”_ Prairie’s panicked voice was heard through the communicator, _“You and Vent have to get out of there fast! The Ouroboros is falling apart and is heading straight into the ocean!”_

“We’re done here,” Aile turned to Vent, who had Ashe on his right shoulder and Grey on his left shoulder while Model A floated back into Ashe’s pocket, “We’ve got two people injured here. Can you transfer us four out?”

 _“Yes, just hold on a moment,”_ Prairie replied from the other side before the four of them disappeared from the Ouroboros in a flash.


	20. The Paths We Chose

Two days had passed since the Ouroboros’ destruction, and the Hunters had been taken care of by the Hunters in the Hunter Camp. Vent and Aile dropped by since the Hunters defeated Albert, but they only found the very worried Model A hovering between the unconscious Hunters in their every visit.

Grey stirred a bit before opening his eyes and sat up, looking around in the room, “Where am I…?”

 _“Grey?”_ Model A turned to the Reploid, _“Y-You’re awake!”_

“Ungh…” The two turned to see that Ashe had moved a bit before she opened her eyes and sat up on her bed.

 _“Ashe!”_ Model A turned back and forth between the Hunters, _“Finally you’re both awake! I’m so glad! I was worried sick about you two!”_ Model A saw as the two Hunters got off from their beds and stared at him, _“W-What’s wrong? Are you still hurt?”_

Ashe let out a chuckle, “How cute! Model A, worried sick about us?”

 _“W-What!?”_ Model A turned away from the Hunters, _“Can’t I be worried for my friends!? I’m just happy that you’re both okay. You got a problem with that!?”_

Grey let out a laugh, “No… Thanks Model A…”

 _“A-Anyway…”_ Model A turned back to the Hunters, _“Vent and Aile should be waiting for you two outside. You should go out and let them know that you’re okay.”_

“Okay,” Ashe said before she along with Grey and Model A went out of the building to be greeted by the shining morning sun.

“Are you two alright?” A familiar feminine voice was heard as Vent and Aile approached the Hunters and Biometal, “I think it was tough for Vent to carry both of you out and get you two here.”

Vent let out an irritated sigh before folding his arms, “You think?”

“Well, thanks anyway you two,” Ashe ignored Vent before turning to Aile, “So, you two are together now?”

“W-Why do you have to bring back that topic again?” Aile asked as a blush appeared on hers and Vent’s faces.

“Don’t mind her, she’s not important,” Grey pushed Ashe aside, “So, what happened to Ouroboros?”

Vent looked up at the clear sky and smiled, “Ouroboros went down in pieces and no trace of Model W found,” Vent turned to the Hunters, “It was all thanks to you two.”

Ashe let out a chuckle, “I wanted to say, ‘I know!’ but I think we won’t make it without the help from you two lovebirds!”

“Enough with the ‘lovebird’ topic!” Vent angrily said with a blush on his face.

Aile let out a sigh before chuckling, “It’s alright, Vent. She’s just joking around,” Aile turned to the Hunters, “Now, what are you two going to do?”

“As for me… Maybe I should find a lot of booty, get rich, and buy back the world from Legion,” Ashe saw the stares coming from the others and laughed, “As if… Well, I guess I’ll just keep being a Hunter. I’d like to see a lot of different places, learn a lot of things, and have people learn about me.”

“As for myself… I haven’t really given it much thought…” Grey let out a sigh before looking up at the two Guardians, “But it is my destiny. I can decide it, right? I want to go on a trip… How far I will go. What I will do. I don’t know yet. But I want to find out who I am.”

“Then you can come with me and stay as a Hunter!” Ashe pulled Grey into a headlock, “We can go around the world on trips, and maybe we can find a clue or two about you and your past!” Ashe turned to the Guardians, “What about you two? A date together?”

“I think it’s getting a little bit too much, Ashe…” A faint blush appeared on Aile’s face, “A-Anyway, we’re planning on going around the world with the Guardian Base.”

Vent nodded in agreement, “Yeah. There are still things that need finding in this world.”

Model A looked at the two Hunters before turning to the Guardians, and then back at the Hunters, _“Hey, what am I supposed to do then?”_

“That’s your destiny, right?” Aile asked and Model A turned to her for a moment before turning back to the Hunters when Ashe had just released Grey from her headlock.

 _“Ashe… Grey… Take me with you!”_ Model A told the two Hunters, _“I want to with you guys!”_

“Alright, let’s all go together!” Grey suggested, “Model A, let’s also find our place in this world!”

The two Hunters along with Model A hovering behind them ran off, waving at the two Guardians, “I hope we all meet again!”

“We can meet every time!” Ashe started as she and Grey looked back at Vent and Aile, who were also waving at them, “Because this is…”

“Our stories and our destiny!” Ashe and Grey said in unison before they ran off to the station area to meet the other Hunters.

Vent and Aile dropped their hands to their sides before Vent turned away and smiled, “Come on, let’s go too.”

Aile nodded, though knowing that Vent wouldn’t see her nodding, “Vent… Are you still thinking about Model Z?”

Vent turned back to Aile, who stood still in her place but had turned around to face him, “Yes, but I’m sure he’s doing fine. He told us that day wasn’t the day he would die, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but…” Vent saw Aile lowering her head sadly and approached her before putting a hand on her shoulder, making her raise her head in surprise, “Huh?”

“Don’t worry,” Vent looked at Aile with a smile on his face, “With or without Model Z, Boss’ spirit lives with us. But I believe that someday, we will find Model Z and he’ll be just fine.”

“Vent…” Aile looked at Vent for a moment before smiling, “Yes, that’s right…”

“Uh, excuse me…” A Hunter approached the two from behind Vent as he turned his head to see the Hunter behind him, “You’re the Guardians who helped us to take down Ouroboros, right?”

Vent nodded in reply, “Yes, is there something you need from us?”

The Hunter reached for his pocket, “Actually, I found this kind of Biometal when my friends and I were about to run after you guys, but we were teleported back to the airship before we could reach you,” The Hunter pulled out a red Biometal from his pocket, making the Guardians’ eyes grew wide in surprise, “Is this yours?”

“MODEL Z!!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first few chapters for the next one in the series is coming in a few minutes!


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